The Cagon Mines
by chronicler-of-knuckles
Summary: Reno Nevada has been arrested for murder! Or has he just become the newest slave of the Cagon Mines? Can Knuckles and Perfect Tommy avoid the same fate? (Rated high for language, violence, and mild sexual situation)
1. Default Chapter

The Cagon Mine Prologue  
  
  
  
"I don't know why I came along with you two." Knuckles mumbled.  
  
"Well, duh, you were bored!" was Perfect Tommy's ever so insightful answer.  
  
But Reno had another opinion: "Your truck."  
  
"Ah, yes, my truck." She settled back in the driver's seat glad that they were aware of that fact. "If that is the case..." She smacked Perfect Tommy's hand away from the radio knobs, "Touch my radio again and I'll let you walk back!"  
  
Tommy pouted, but resigned his control. After all, he was pretty sure she could put him out of the truck. And he had no doubt that she would make him walk the thirty miles through the desert heat back to the World Watch One and the hotel they were staying at.  
  
"There it is!" Reno Nevada suddenly called out pointing out the front window at a dusty group of shacks that made up the little town of Cagon.  
  
"That's a town?" Perfect Tommy huffed.  
  
Reno grinned. "Out here all a town needs if a post office and a canteena." He leaned over the front seat so that he could get a better look. "And Cagon is rumored to have an old fashion canteena with dance hall girls, a player piano, and the works. Not to mention the best moonshine in the west." he whistled, remembering the stuff he had sampled back in Tuson. It was so smooth it brought tears to his eyes. He wanted to pick up a batch to take back home with them and hide away under his bed to bring out in those moments he wanted everyone's attention.  
  
"Ha! Figures." Knuckles mumbled, pulling into a dirt parking spot in front of an old west style 2 story canteena. She pointed up at the sign that read "Naked Lady." "Why are they always called the Naked lady? I'm gonna go home and rename the Jessie James the Naked Gentleman!" she growled. "See how they like that!"  
  
Reno and Tommy exchanged amused looks. Perfect Tommy looked away to try and hide his grin, while Reno patted Knuckles on the arm. "I think, maybe, you should keep it as is." he suggested.  
  
Knuckles frowned at him, but she couldn't fight off the smile for long. "Yea, well, maybe that would be over the top." she admitted. "But, come on... the Naked Lady?"  
  
"I can't think of anything better to go with a nice cold beer." Perfect Tommy commented, sliding out of the truck just in time to avoid Knuckles' fist.  
  
With a sigh, the girl glanced back to Reno. "How do you put up with him?"  
  
Reno shrugged. "It is a trial at times. A true trial."  
  
From across the dusty street a man in a tan uniform and sporting a silver star watched as the new comers headed into the canteena. He rolled the cigar between his teeth. "They came." he observed.  
  
"'Course they came." answered a man standing beside him. He rolled a gold coin through his fingers. "Now, go make sure they don't leave."  
  
Perfect Tommy had already found himself a seat at the bar and one of the saloon girls to flirt with.  
  
The bleach blond in a very skimpy, squinted red dress leaned into the Cavalier, pretending to hang on every word he said. Her thick, red lips puckered up at him, her long fake eye lashes fluttering. Long fake nails tapped lightly on Tommy's neck while the other hand rested on his thigh.  
  
Reno shook his head as he and Knuckles took the two stools to Perfect Tommy's left. He called to the bartender for three beers. After a quick glance to see Knuckles glaring at their companion, he turned to Perfect Tommy. Better put an end to it now before Knuckles decided to do it herself. "Did you take your meds, Tommy?"  
  
"Meds?" The young man glanced at him, but the precision move of the woman's hand on his thigh distracted him.  
  
"Yea. Wouldn't want the rash to get out of hand."  
  
That got the full attention of both Cavalier and saloon girl. "Rash?" they both asked. The girl stepped away, frowning.  
  
"Oh. don't worry, Miss." Reno hurried on. "We're pretty sure it isn't contagious. Just don't rub the bumpy, ozzy parts and you'll... hey! Where you going?" He grinned, glancing back at his friend.  
  
Perfect Tommy was glaring. he opened his mouth, but a soft pounding beyond Reno drew both of their attention.  
  
Turning Reno looked down at Knuckles who was softly bouncing her head off the bar, doing her very best to stifle her laughter. Apparently she thought the only successful way of doing that was to knock herself unconscious. Knowing there was no discouraging the girl, Reno simple waited fro an up swing and slid his jacket between her head and the bar. After all, being the only mature person on the trip, he was in charge. And Buckaroo would not be happy if he brought either of them back bruised.  
  
Still glaring, Perfect Tommy turned back to the bar as the three beers were delivered. "That wasn't called for." he growled.  
  
"Just trying to keep you innocent." Reno commented, taking a swig of cold beer. He paused to move Knuckles' mug back as her head pounding picked up pace.  
  
The bartender threw the girl a concerned look. "She alright?"  
  
"In a matter of speaking." Reno answered. "Hey, bud, a fellow back in Tuson told us that you have a pretty good home brewed hooch. I'd like to purchase some if I may."  
  
The bartender's eyes narrowed. "he don't look old enough and she looks crazy."  
  
"Not old enough?!" Perfect Tommy cried. "You served me a beer!"  
  
Reno shoved him off his stool and out of the conversation. "It isn't for them." he assured the bartender.  
  
The bartender chewed on his lip for a moment, then nodded. "Alrighty, pal. How old? How strong? How much? And I'll tell you the price."  
  
Reno and the bartender spent the next several minutes hashing out details. By the time they were finished Perfect Tommy was warming up another girl and Knuckles had managed to stop pounding her head long enough to discover the antique gun collection on the far wall. "Hey, guys, I'm going out to load up the hooch. Stay here! Stay out of trouble! Don't kill anyone.... particularly each other! Okay?"  
  
They both waved more or less in his direction, more or less paying attention to what he was saying. Reno betted on the less.  
  
With a sigh, Reno headed out the door. He stepped out the side door and into the alley where the bartender told him he could pick up the barrel. The bright desert sunshine blinded him for the first moment. The blow to his head blinded him for the next.  
  
Knuckles and Perfect Tommy snapped about when they heard the gun shot.  
  
"Where's Reno?" Perfect Tommy asked, pushing away from the girl he had been distracted by.  
  
"Truck." Knuckles supplied and they both ran out the front doors. But Reno wasn't there. But a small town deputy was.  
  
"Hold it right there, folks." he ordered, holding his gun on them.  
  
"Woe." Perfect Tommy held up his hands.  
  
"Hey!" Knuckles held her hands out. "We're good guys!" she assured.  
  
The deputy's weapon never wavered. He glanced at the alley entrance where the sheriff and a pair of deputies were dragging the nearly unconscious Reno into view.  
  
"Reno!" Perfect Tommy cried. He took a step toward his friend only to draw the attention of the sheriff.  
  
"Stay right where you are, boy." he growled.  
  
"What happened?" Tommy demanded, watching helplessly as the deputies handcuffed his friend.  
  
"Your buddy made a very big mistake." The sheriff told them. "And now he is under arrest."  
  
"Under arrest for what?" Knuckles wanted to know.  
  
The sheriff waved to the body another deputy was dragging into view. It was the bartender and a large bloody hole made up most of his chest. "Murder."  
  
  
  
Ch. 1  
  
"Nooo." Knuckles said slowly, making every word as clear as possible. "Perfect Tommy was not arrested. Reno Nevada was arrested. You remember him? Black hair, dark eyes, fond of bright, blinding colors?"  
  
Perfect Tommy tugged on her sleeve. "Why do they always think I'm the one in trouble?" he complained.  
  
She shook her arm free, listening to the voice on the other end of the line. "Of course he didn't kill anyone!" A pause. "No, Rawhide, I did not see it. But, come on, you know Reno! He's a pussy cat! A moody pussy cat, but... Yea, Cagon, it's a lean-to in the middle of the desert with a P.O. box and a canteena... well, Reno says that's all they need to call themselves a town out here... a little over thirty miles." She sighed, resting her head against the wall. "Thanks, Rawhide. We'll be here waiting... yea, we're fine." She grinned. "Trouble? Us?" She beeped the go- phone off.  
  
Perfect Tommy waited patiently for a report for exactly fifteen seconds... the appropriate amount of time for the Cavalier. "Well?" he pressed. "What'd they say?"  
  
Knuckles looked up at him. "They said I should keep you out of trouble. The only reason the cops would of nailed Reno instead of you is that you did something so nasty they can't figure it out yet." She grinned.  
  
Perfect Tommy glared.  
  
The girl pushed away from the wall and looked around the dusty town. "Did they let you talk to Reno?" she asked after a moment.  
  
Perfect Tommy shook his head. "They said no one gets in." he mumbled as together they started back toward the truck still parked in front of the Naked Lady canteena. "Is that legal? I mean, don't they have to let him see a lawyer?"  
  
"If he's conscious enough to ask for one." Knuckles pointed out. She resisted the urge to point out the fact that she had often kept annoying bounties unconscious after a hunt to avoid just that sort of distraction. "He has to demand his rights to get them. And he has to be conscious to make said demand." She frowned. "Maybe Buckaroo will be able to get in, seeing as he can claim to be Reno's doc and he is hurt and all." She shrugged. "Though they could use their own. Rawhide wouldn't happen to have a law degree somewhere's in that stack of diplomas of his, would he?"  
  
Perfect Tommy shrugged. "His is fond of lecturing something about mankind's true self having something to do with crime."  
  
Knuckles smiled slightly. She had had such conversations with the zen- master of the house herself. "Not quite right, but close enough." She stopped, grabbing Tommy's hand. "What are they doing to my truck?"  
  
Perfect Tommy looked over to where a handful of deputies were in, on, and around Knuckles' truck.  
  
"Damn, boys, look at this!" cursed the one going through the trunk in the bed of her truck. It was her weapons locker. "She's armed for the whole damn Suiox nation!" He held up her Winchester in one hand and a heavy cross bow in the other.  
  
"Son of a..." Knuckles started, ready to charge the intruders, but Perfect Tommy dragged her back behind the corner of a building and out of sight. "What the hell..."  
  
Perfect Tommy put his hand over her mouth and leaned out to see if they had been seen.  
  
Knuckles stood stock still, knowing Tommy knew her well enough to know that he had to have a damn good reason to man handle her in such away. Trusting, of course, he wasn't suicidal.  
  
After a silent breath, he leaned close to her until his words blew hot breath in her ear. "Don't you know a set up when you see one?" he growled. "They're setting up to arrest us."  
  
"I have licenses for everything in that locker." Knuckles protested in a whispered voice. "They have nothing to arrest us on."  
  
"Wake up, Jessie!" Tommy snapped using her real name for emphases. "Some one had to have killed the bartender! If it wasn't Reno..."  
  
Knuckles closed her eyes. "They did show up rather fast, didn't they?" she mumbled as it suddenly dawned on her. Despite it being obvious, she just couldn't quite see it though. Damn it, she was a bounty hunter! She worked with cops!  
  
Perfect Tommy rested his forehead against hers. "Just because they ware a badge doesn't make them the good guys, Knuckles." he told her. "Haven't you ever heard of bad cops?"  
  
Knuckles sighed. "So what do we do?"  
  
The mature answer, the proper answer would of been to hide, stay out of sight, wait for back up. Neither of them were very mature and no where near proper.  
  
"We get them before they get us!"  
  
**********  
  
Buckaroo Banzai had studied a number of martial arts, perfecting his skills until he could claim mastery of such arts. Yet, as he watched the speed and precision of which young Billy Travers fingers flew over the keyboard, he knew there was quite a bit for him to learn.  
  
Billy glanced over his shoulder at him. "Hey, boss, you're developing over-the-shoulder syndrome." he warned.  
  
Buckaroo frowned. "What?"  
  
Rawhide took Buckaroo by the arm and pulled him away from the computer whiz. "Let us know when you have something, Billy." he requested. As he lead Buckaroo back to his room in the back of the bus, he said "You worry too much about those two. They might not act like it most of the time, but Knuckles and Perfect Tommy are all grown up."  
  
Buckaroo dropped down in a chair with a sigh. "Why did we ever let those two get together?" he groaned.  
  
"Hey, wasn't my idea!" Rawhide shook his head. "Besides, they're the ones not in trouble this time, remember?"  
  
Buckaroo looked up at him. "Yet."  
  
Rawhide smiled.  
  
Billy showed up then waving a paper in the air. "Got it!" he announced proudly, as if there was ever any doubt. Then, remembering what he was waving in the air, he frowned, handing it to Buckaroo. "It isn't very good, sir."  
  
Buckaroo didn't like what he was reading. "Sheriff McCane... he sure makes a lot of arrests for a town of... 120 people."  
  
"Almost none of which, by the way," Billy pointed out, "are residences of said town. Folks keep going thirty miles out into the middle of no where and getting arrested."  
  
Rawhide heard this story before. "And working their time off in the local whatever?" he asked as Buckaroo handed him the paper.  
  
"They have a mine." Billy answered.  
  
"Slaves." Buckaroo concluded. "Or more like indentured servants. And it's all legal as long as they can prove the crime."  
  
Billy looked from one man to the other. "Murder is a pretty nasty rap just to get a writer to work in a mine."  
  
Rawhide nodded slowly. Eyeing the paper, he observed "Murder does seem rare." He paused. "Billy, what do these people do? These folks nailed for murder?"  
  
Billy shrugged, pulling another paper from somewhere. "Engineers, ecologists..."  
  
Buckaroo rose to his feet. "They framed the wrong man."  
  
**********  
  
"You idiot!" Reno heard the man in the gray suit yell at the sheriff. "What good is a damn pencil pusher in a mine? I wanted the laser geek! Do you know how we could step up production if we were cutting with lasers? or if our machinery was powered by whatever that pretty boy can think of?"  
  
Laser geek? Pretty boy? Perfect Tommy?  
  
He squeezed his eyes closed, trying to force the pounding in his ears to stop so that he could better hear the voices. Buckaroo had once taught him something... what was it... picture the pain as a fog... then blow it away, blow it all away.  
  
"So, what do we do about this one?" That was the sheriff. Reno knew that voice all too well. That was the bastard that whacked him on the head. And then held the gun in his hand and made him shoot the bartender. Made him murder an innocent man!  
  
He heard the click of the heals of the gray suit man as he walked over to his cell and looked in on him. "He looks strong, healthy. Work him as a digger." The voice paused. "But get me that boy! And that girlfriend of his... watch her! She's a bounty hunter. A damn good one at that. If she gets dead resisting arrest... I won't lose any sleep."  
  
Reno almost laughed. Kill Knuckles? Yea, like some dumb-ass hick who couldn't tell the difference between Perfect Tommy and Reno Nevada was going to get the jump on Jessica James, Bounty Hunter Knuckle! Yea, right, over their dead body!  
  
Suddenly it wasn't very funny any more.  
  
**********  
  
Perfect Tommy yanked Knuckles back behind the wall.  
  
"Will you stop doing that?" she hissed at him.  
  
"Look!" Tommy pointed to the jail where the sheriff was half dragging, half leading Reno to a jeep and shoving him into the back.  
  
"Where the hell are they going?" Knuckles wondered.  
  
Perfect Tommy looked around. "We need wheels." He spotted a dirt bike leaned up against the back of the store they were hiding behind. "Well, isn't that handy."  
  
Knuckles followed his gaze. "No, that's stealing."  
  
Perfect Tommy grinned. "Stealing is such a nasty word. I prefer borrowing... with extreme prejudice."  
  
Knuckles frowned. But, after glancing to where the jeep was pulling away, she shrugged. "What the hell... at least now they'll have a reason to arrest us." 


	2. Ch 2

The Cagon Mines Ch. 2  
  
Water splashed on his face.  
  
"Up and at 'e,, Mex." laughed a rough, snarling voice.  
  
"Reno." The downed Cavalier growled, wiping the water from his eyes.  
  
"What's that ya sayin'?"  
  
"It's Reno." he repeated, bracing his hands beneath him. "But you can call me MR Nevada!" Reno grabbed a handful of dirt and threw it as he lunged.  
  
The prison guard, blinded by the dirt, never saw the small, yet powerful, fists coming at him. And, after only two sharp blows, never saw what had hit him.  
  
Reno quickly stepped over the fallen man and headed for the light. He wasn't entirely sure where he was. By the looks of the walls it was a cave. He had spent most of the trip here slipping in and out of conscious so the details were lost to him. But he was verily certain about one thing: when it came to caves, the light lead to the way out!  
  
He stumbled to a halt at the edge of the light, his gut twisting with a mixture of wonder and cold realization.  
  
The light revealed a huge pit of maybe five stories above and four below. The pit's walls were braced in comstock fashion, with levels and levels of miner filled planked platforms. It was a longer look at the miners that revealed the true horror of what Reno saw: men in tattered suits, women in torn dresses, children hunched over from loads too heavy for their half grown bodies... all under the watchful eyes of the whip and pistol toting prison guards.  
  
The light didn't lead Reno out. It lead him into the pit of hell!  
  
"Escape! Escape!" screamed the man he had left in the dirt behind him. "Stop him! catch that damn Mex!"  
  
Reno turned and took a step back toward the prison guard who cringed and back away. Apparently the man who's brave enough to push around helpless people, has his doubts about taking on a man who is more than willing and able to fight back.  
  
"Stand right there!" a yell drew his attention to his right.  
  
"You got no where to go, Mex." another command came from his left.  
  
Reno looked about, seeing prison guards coming at him from both sides. They shook lose their whips as they approached. His only escape routs were through them... unless...  
  
Reno Nevada spun about. Just a few feet from the platform he was standing on was a rope which was lowering a bucket down to the lower levels. An escape... one way or another. Taking a running leap, he jumped for the rope.  
  
Catching it, he swung out into the center of the pit. Curses sounded from above and below as workers fought to control the rope, struggling with the unexpected weight. Reno slid down a few inches, the rope tarring at the skin of the palms of his hands, until his feet landed on the edge of the bucket.  
  
The prison guards were all around, now, watching him from all the platforms. After a moment of watching him swing out there, one of the called out "Now all ya have to do is let go. Down really is the only escape for you, Mex!"  
  
Reno looked down. It was so dark at the bottom of the pit he wasn't sure if he was really seeing the bottom or if it went down and down and what he was really seeing was night on the other side of the world. he looked up. He could see passed the people who peered down from him from the levels above. The blue sky and bright sunshine shown down on him from the pit's mouth, seemingly to be just out of reach. Freedom... and all he had to do was climb the rope... climb the rope five, six stories with bad guys on all sides and probably a lot more up top waiting for him. He looked down again. Freedom so close, one way or another....  
  
Well, if light didn't always lead out, up, sure as hell, was better than down!  
  
He began to climb, reaching up, grabbing rope, pulling himself up, hold with his legs, reaching up, grabbing rope, pulling himself up....  
  
The prison guards laughed at his slow ascend. "He ain't goin' no where." one hooted. "Let him ware himself out and climb his hands raw. He'll know better, then, that there's only one way out of the Cagon Mines. And that's down!"  
  
**********  
  
Perfect Tommy leaned over the top of the hill. "That is one big damn hole." he whistled.  
  
Knuckles laid beside him. "Crap." Her form of agreement. "What the hell is that?"  
  
"A mine, I think." Perfect Tommy glanced at her. "They mine out here, don't they?"  
  
"Silver, I think." When Tommy frowned at her, she shrugged. "I'm a zoologist! What do I know about rocks?"  
  
He huffed and shook his head. "Fine geniuses we are. Where's ol' Bucky when you need some one who knows everything?"  
  
"She's right. Silver." a voice spoke up from behind them.  
  
Perfect Tommy and Knuckles glanced at each other. "You ever notice," Knuckles started, "that I always get in trouble when I'm with you?"  
  
Perfect Tommy frowned again. "Why does everyone blame me? I haven't done one thing during this whole trip to get any of us in trouble!" he protested.  
  
"You don't have to do anything to get into trouble!" Knuckles accused. "You just attract it like rotten meat attracts flies!"  
  
Tommy winced. "Do you have to use that analogy?"  
  
Knuckles shrugged. "Like black attracts Oddity's white fur?"  
  
Perfect Tommy tilted his head to one side. "I noticed that. Does that dog ever stop shedding?"  
  
"Excuse me?" spoke up the voice from behind them once more. "Me, with big gun, arresting you two, with no guns. Remember?"  
  
"Now you want to complain about Oddity?" Knuckles growled, ignoring the intruder. "Some of that stuff you call style could use Oddity's touch!"  
  
"Hey, I know fashion!" Perfect Tommy protested.  
  
"Fashion maybe! You look really pretty crawling around in the dirt in your silk and leather."  
  
"At least I do it in style!"  
  
"Ever heard of excessorizing for environment?" Knuckles returned.  
  
"Helloooo?"  
  
Perfect Tommy held up a hand at the deputy behind them, hushing him. "Let me guess: if we were in Hawaii you'd want me running around in a grass skirt?"  
  
"Ha!" Knuckles rolled on her back and crossed her arms over her chest. "Like you have the legs to pull that off."  
  
Tommy looked shocked. "What the hell are wrong with my legs?"  
  
Knuckles hands snapped out, throwing a knife from under her sleeve, across the short distance between herself and the deputy, and took him in the arm.  
  
With a cry, the deputy dropped his shot gun, and grabbed at the knife in his arm.  
  
But perfect Tommy jumped at him, knocking him down to the ground and slamming his fist against his jaw, knocking him out cold.  
  
Knuckles rose to her feet, and walked over to retrieve her knife.  
  
Perfect Tommy looked up at her from where he crouched over the deputy. "Well? What the hell is wrong with my legs?"  
  
Leaning over, Knuckles kissed him lightly on the forehead. "Nothing, P.T, nothing what-so-ever." she cooed, before wiping her knife clean on the unconscious man's pants and sliding it back into the sheath strapped to the under side of her arm. "We better get back to the bike before his buddies come looking for him." She turned away.  
  
Perfect Tommy rose up and followed, saying "No, really: what's wrong with my legs?"  
  
Knuckles laughed.  
  
**********  
  
The town of Cagon was so small, the World Watch One had to be parked on the outskirts. There simply wasn't any room for the big bus. They even had their doubts about driving it down the main street which looked like it was only wide enough for one way traffic anyway. not that it was a big deal, parking out of town. Not like there wasn't anything beyond walking distance anyway.  
  
Pecos frowned as she looked around. "Didn't we visit a ghost town like this once before?" she mumbled.  
  
"Oh, like that was a fond memory." Big Norse stepped passed her. "There's the canteena." She huffed. "Why are they always called the Naked Lady?"  
  
Rawhide leaned over her shoulder. "They know a good thing when they see it." he teased, but quickly moved away when he recognized a dangerous spark in the woman's eyes. He set his stetson on his head. "Everyone stay in pairs, stay in contact, and stay out of trouble!" he ordered the gathering BBs. "Remember: jail here is being dropped down some mine shaft and put to work."  
  
"Sam, stay with the bus. Keep it locked up and safe." Buckaroo added to the driver. "And, Billy, stay on the information highway. We need proof else we're just breaking a friend out jail."  
  
"Speaking of friends..." Everyone looked at Pecos. "Where are Knuckles and Perfect Tommy? Not exactly like you can miss us pulling into town."  
  
Buckaroo Banzai took a few steps down the dusty street. Only a few of the locals could be seen wandering here and there. None of which had any resemblance to the two missing Cavaliers. The only sign that they had ever been there was the empty truck sitting in front of the canteena. "Pecos, Norse, go check out the canteena. See what you can find out about this bartender Reno supposedly murdered. Pinky, you and New Jersey collect Knuckles' truck."  
  
"And lock that weapons' locker of hers in the bus." Rawhide put in. "Last thing we need is to explain what a little girl like her is doing with all that fire power."  
  
Buckaroo nodded. "Rawhide and I'll go pay a visit to our friendly local law enforcement." He waved a finger at them. "And keep in touch."  
  
After a nod each, they headed off for their separate destinations.  
  
Rawhide scratched his chin. "I'd sure like to know where those kids got themselves." he mumbled.  
  
Buckaroo sighed. Not bothering to answer, he started for the little jail house half way down the block  
  
The sheriff rose to his feet when he saw the pair step into his office. "Well, howdy, folks. What can I do for you?"  
  
Buckaroo smiled despite his urge to throttle the man and demand he return his people right then and there. No good comes from violence... for perhaps the deep satisfaction of hammering a bad guy into the ground with his bare knuckles. "Hello. Names Dr. Buckaroo Banzai. I'd like to talk to Reno Nevada."  
  
The sheriff flashed a crooked smile. "Your a few miles off for that, friend. Reno, Nevada is in a whole other state."  
  
Rawhide stepped forward and he was not smiling. "This morning you arrested a man by the name of Reno Nevada for murder."  
  
Sheriff McCane hesitated. "Oh, you mean the mex. Well, he ain't here no longer."  
  
"Mex?" Buckaroo growled. "Is every Latin American in these parts considered a `mex'?"  
  
The sheriff stiffened.  
  
But Rawhide took over the conversation before it could deteriorate any more. "If he isn't here, where is he?" he wanted to know.  
  
"Gentlemen." called a gray suited man as he stepped in from an office to the side. "Mr. Nevada was moved to the local prison facilities after his trial."  
  
"Trial? You investigated and tried a man for murder in only a few hours?" Rawhide demanded.  
  
"And found him guilty!" the sheriff snapped. "Justice doesn't wait around here for an audience. We get the job done, and don't waste time fussing with cross the `t' or dotting the `i'!"  
  
The gray suited man held up his hand, silencing his sheriff. "Please excuse our rudeness. We don't often get visitors, you understand." He held his hand out to Buckaroo. "I am Mayor Cagon and this is Sheriff McCane. By the way, he also happen to witness the murder."  
  
"Really?" Buckaroo eyed the man. "And what exactly did he see?"  
  
Sheriff McCane leaned over his desk. "I saw your mex draw on a helpless man and gun him down." he growled. "And, while we're on the subject of your friends, you won't happen to know where those other two are, now, would you?"  
  
"Why? Who'd they murder?"  
  
The sheriff smiled. "Have a few questions I'd like to ask them."  
  
"About?"  
  
"My apologies, Dr. Banzai." Cagon spoke up. "Are you their lawyer?"  
  
"I'm their doctor and employer." Buckaroo answered.  
  
"Well." Cagon rolled a gold coin over his knuckles. "If their lawyer appears, you will let us know, won't you?" He smiled, an ending to their conversation.  
  
Buckaroo's eyes narrowed, but he had nothing else to say to these men. He had seen enough. With a glance to Rawhide, he turned and left.  
  
**********  
  
Pecos looked around at the canteena. Dust was every where. Even the beer was speckled with dust. She set the mug back down without taking a swig. "Hey, buddy." she called to the barkeep.  
  
The man turned just enough to see who was talking, before returning to watering down a bottle of Jack Daniels. "Yea?" he mumbled.  
  
"Heard something about a murder here abouts this morning. Can you fill me in?" Pecos asked, grabbing a peanut and popping it into her mouth. She quickly spat it out in her hand. "How old are these things?"  
  
The bartender glanced at her again. "Older than you, missy." With a sigh, he turned and leaned on the bar. He looked her up and down. "Bet if I had a body like yours on the payroll I could afford to buy new nuts."  
  
Pecos smiled her warmest and leaned over toward him. "Another comment like that, and you'll need new nuts."  
  
His smile vanished instantly and he quickly stepped back and out of reach.  
  
Pecos sat back once again. "Murder? This morning?" she reminded.  
  
The bartender shrugged. "When you have a famous establishment like this, on occasion you draw the wrong crowd." He turned back to his watered down whiskey.  
  
"Yea, well, this joint seems to attract a lot of it." Big Norse commented walking up to the bar after her chat with bleached blond saloon girl. "You have a murder every couple of months according to the locals. You go through a lot of bartenders."  
  
The man shrugged, throwing a glare at his saloon girl who shrank away. "Yea, well always lookin' for talented drink slingers."  
  
"I'm pretty good." Norse offered. "And I hear you've recently had an opening."  
  
Pecos glanced sharply at her friend, but was ignored.  
  
The bartender turned to eye her. He glanced once to Pecos then back to the blond. "Well, I'll give you a try. never had a woman barkeep before. Might be... fun." His eye had a rather nasty twinkle to it. "Show up first thing in the morning and I'll put you to work. You have a place to stay tonight?"  
  
"It's taken care of." Pecos quickly answered, taking her friend by the arm and dragging her away.  
  
They joined New Jersey and Pinky outside. Pinky was crouched in the bed, looking at an empty trunk. "They took even the spare cylinders for her Starr." he was saying.  
  
New Jersey was frowning, nothing unusual for him. "Do we know what she had?"  
  
"Yea." Pinky answered, jumping out onto the ground. "She gave Rawhide an inventory in case she wasn't around and we needed her gear." He shook a set of keys. "She thinks of everything, eh?"  
  
"Which is something that should be bugging us considering she isn't here." Norse spoke up. "But, hey, no worry. I've got a job."  
  
"Job?" That was Rawhide. He and Buckaroo had just joined them from across the street. "What job?"  
  
Pecos threw a thumb over her shoulder at the canteena. "She's the new bartender, aka next murder victim."  
  
"What?!" Rawhide glared at the blond woman.  
  
"Take it easy, Rawhide." Big Norse held up her hands. "According to queen of peroxide in there, a newbie walks into town, gets a job as a bartender, waits for the next newbie to walk into town, and dies." She shrugged. "We have a whole bus load of newbies we can frame for murder." She grinned.  
  
Buckaroo grinned.  
  
Everyone else frowned. 


	3. Ch 3

The Cagon Mines Ch. 3  
  
With a groan, he slowly raised his head. A pair of brown eyes looked back at him. Blinking. Reno Nevada looked around at the shadowy cave cell he had some how ended up in. Several pairs of eyes looked back. It was too dark to make out too much detail, except that they were all dirty, they all smelled of salty sweat and rancid wounds, and they all watched him, the whites of their eyes shining like beacons in the shadows.  
  
The first one shoved a beat up tin cup at him.  
  
Reno pushed himself up into a sitting position and gratefully took the offered cup. He made a face as the cool water ran over his tongue. It was gritty and tasted of rust.  
  
His benefactor chuckled. "Well, it isn't champagne, but it keeps us going."  
  
The Cavalier swooshed the water in the cup for a moment, then, with a shrug, took another swallow. When he managed to get that gulp down, he smiled. "Had worse. Buckaroo has this get-'im-up-now morning coffee..." He shook his head. He glanced around once more. "Where are we?"  
  
"You don't remember?" The man huffed. "Guess I don't blame you after that climb of yours. Never thought you'd make it to the top. Did you really think no one would be waiting for you?" Again he chuckled.  
  
Reno frowned. He didn't remember making it to the top. 'Course, he barely remembered much of anything except, maybe, his arms falling off. Then again, his arms were still there, more or less. They felt like limp noodles.  
  
The man leaned close to get a good look at him. "You've got the look of a smart man. Why did you bother climbing to the top?"  
  
The Cavalier shrugged. "Hate to leave a thing unfinished." he mumbled. "Where..."  
  
"Cagon's justice system." the man growled. There were a few mumbles from around the cell. "Welcome to the city jail." He looked up and around as if his eyes could pierce the darkness to see the stone ceiling and walls. "It's a silver mine in the middle of no where, and we..." he waved at the others "... are the condemned."  
  
"They said he was convicted of murder." came a woman's voice from the shadows.  
  
"Murder?" His benefactor glanced back at him sharply. "What are you? Engineer? A rock doc?"  
  
It was Reno's turn to chuckle. "I play the saxophone."  
  
"The saxophone? They wasted a body on a sax's player?"  
  
Reno shrugged. "I'm a pretty good P.R. man."  
  
The drew a laugh from the audience. The man grinned, showing off what had once been perfect teeth. "Well, friend, these folks could use some good public relations." he held his hand out. "Names Moses. Arrested and convicted in a record two hours for armed robbery... three days before I even knew this dump existed."  
  
The Cavalier took the offered hand. "Reno Nevada, murder, apparently because they thought I was someone else." He frowned, suddenly wondering what had happened to Perfect Tommy and Knuckles. No doubt they had called Buckaroo. but would they behave long enough for Buckaroo to come to the rescue? he sure hoped he would know more about what was going on than he did.  
  
Moses watched him a moment longer, before leaning back. "Aughta get some shut eye. Tomorrow is always hard enough. And the guards are going to be wanting to make it clear that no one else had better be wasting time trying to climb out of this hell hole."  
  
Reno Nevada glanced about sharply. "Are they going to punish you for what I did?" he wondered, suddenly feeling very guilty.  
  
Moses shrugged. "Don't matter. It was damn entertaining while it lasted." That got another laugh from the crowd, though there was a nervous hint to it. "Don't worry about it, man." Moses continued. "They'd find a reason to put us in our place anyway." He leaned back until he disappeared in the darkness. Pair by pair, the eyes blinked out as the occupants of the cell went to sleep for the night.  
  
Reno Nevada sighed. Thinking of nothing else to do, he laid down again and closed his eyes, hoping he would dream of his friends, his beautiful Pecos, and smacking around a certain sheriff.  
  
**********  
  
Knuckles smacked a hand across his shoulders. "headlights! If you have to steal something, steal something with a headlight!" The bike hit an unseen bump that nearly threw her from the bike. She had to wonder if he had done it on purpose. Even if he was as blind as she was, Perfect Tommy was just Perfect Tommy enough to throw her from the bike for insulting his larceny abilities. The side effect of her grip around his middle tightening was just an after thought.  
  
"Hey, plenty of moon light." Perfect Tommy mumbled back, concentrating on what little ground he could see before them.  
  
Knuckles smack him again. "There isn't any moon, you idiot."  
  
Tommy glanced back. "You wanna walk?"  
  
"Bus." was her answer.  
  
"What?"  
  
"BUS!" Knuckles shouted diving off of the bike.  
  
Perfect Tommy looked forward again to see a huge object across his path, There was no time to apply brakes, so he simply turned, laying the dirt bike on its side. Both he and the bike skidded across the dirt trail until the bike slammed into the underside of the bus.  
  
Bruised, skinned, cut, and dazed, Perfect Tommy laid on the ground staring up at where the blackness of the sky ended and the blackness of the bus started. Bus? Black?  
  
Rawhide crouched down beside him. "I knew we'd be running into you. I just didn't think we'd be running over you."  
  
"Well, you know how I like to make an entrance." Perfect Tommy groaned. He dropped his head back to the ground.  
  
Rawhide was just pulling the younger man to his feet when New Jersey came around the front of the bus. "Rawhide, we've got comp..." He stopped when he saw Perfect Tommy. "Oh, damn..." he started.  
  
"Well, well, Mr.. Perfect Tommy? Am I correct?" Sheriff McCane held out his hand as he stepped out from behind the doctor.  
  
Tommy hesitated.  
  
"Sheriff." Rawhide greeted, though his tone was everything but welcoming. He kept his hand securely clamped on Tommy's elbow as if he feared that if he let go, he'd lose him once more. He always seemed to be losing the damn kid!  
  
New Jersey cleared his throat and Held out a slip of official looking paper to Rawhide. "He has a warrant for Perfect Tommy."  
  
Tommy stiffened, but Rawhide's grip on him kept him still.  
  
"What's the charge?" Rawhide asked, not taking the paper. He'd trust Jersey to read it correctly.  
  
But it was the sheriff that answered: "For the theft of a motor cycle."  
  
Tommy smiled, a nervous expression at best. "Motor cycle? What motor cycle?"  
  
McCane glanced passed them at the bike which was still wedged under the bus. "Probably that one." He pulled a pair of handcuffs from the back of his belt. "You want to come nice and quiet like? Or shall we make a fight out of this?"  
  
As if cued, three deputies stepped into view. Buckaroo and a rather irate Pinky Carruthers followed.  
  
Perfect Tommy stepped back. "I don't do jail." he growled. Again, Rawhide's grip kept him from going too far. Being perfect, he quickly regained his composure. With a shaky smile, he added "Been there, done that. But thanks for the invention."  
  
"'friad it wasn't a matter of choice, boy." McCane continued to advance on him.  
  
Buckaroo suddenly stepped between them. "You will get much further with him, don't you think, if you let me calm him down?" he suggested.  
  
The sheriff eyed him suspiciously. But he didn't want to have to hurt the laser geek. They needed him in one piece. Besides, if the boy put up a fight, he wasn't entirely sure that the badge toters of Cagon were enough to ward off the Hong Kong Cavaliers. This all in mind, McCane nodded once and stepped back again.  
  
With a sigh, Buckaroo turned to face Tommy.  
  
Despite being a strong man to stand beside in battle, when it came to jail, Perfect Tommy almost looked like a frightened little boy. "Buckaroo..." he started, shaking his head slightly.  
  
Buckaroo rested his hands on the young Cavalier's shoulders. "It's alright. You'll be fine." he assured.  
  
"I don't do jail!" Tommy insisted, twisting under his hands. But he froze when, as Buckaroo reached up and patted the side of his face, he felt something slip behind his ear.  
  
"You can and you will do just fine. Find Reno. Stay close together." Knowing how close the sheriff was standing, he couldn't say much more. So he winked.  
  
Perfect Tommy still wasn't happy, but he knew Buckaroo would never let him down. Thus, he could never let him down. Even if it did mean jail. Swallowing back his misgivings, he nodded. "I'm trusting you, Bucky ol' pal. Don't leave me in there!"  
  
Buckaroo squeezed his shoulder. "Never!" he swore. "Stick with Reno. We'll get you both back."  
  
Tommy sighed. "I'm going on the record as officially hating this." he mumbled, but when the sheriff waved a couple of deputies forward to lead him away, he didn't resist.  
  
Sheriff McCane watched them lead his prisoner away before facing Buckaroo and rawhide. "And the girl? Is she under there too?" he wondered nodding toward the bus.  
  
"Only one speed bump a day." Buckaroo assured.  
  
"Well, I have a warrant for her too, so, if you know what's good for her, you'll talk her into turning herself in."  
  
"Sheriff," Buckaroo answered, his voice taking on a dead calm, "I always know what's best for my people."  
  
McCane glared at him for a moment, knowing well that that was a threat, not assurance. Then he spun around and, pushing passed jersey and Pinky, stomped after his men.  
  
When they were gone, Jersey asked "And where is Knuckles?"  
  
Buckaroo glanced out into the dark night.  
  
Rawhide scratched his jaw. "Jersey, Pinky, take the hummer back to Tuson. Go that way." He nodded in the direction that the bike had come from.  
  
new Jersey frowned. "But Tuson is the other way."  
  
Pinky shook his head. Grabbing the doctors arm, he dragged him off, mumbling "Sometimes, Jersey, you are just too damn innocent."  
  
They had driven only a few moments out when they found Knuckles sitting in the dirt. Like perfect Tommy, she was scraped up and bruised, but, otherwise, alright. For the exception of an attitude that put even the stead fast Pinky Carruthers on the look out.  
  
Knuckles yanked her arm free as jersey tried to help her into the hummer. "You just let them take Tom like that?" she growled. "You know what they're going to do to him? Drop him down into some pit mine in the middle of nowhere as slave labor! That's what!"  
  
Pinky's knuckles turned white as his grip tightened on the steering wheel. Caught between his own anger at the situation and his loyalty to Buckaroo, he wasn't sure what to do about Knuckles challenge.  
  
Surprising enough, it was the doctor who knew the answer. "Buckaroo knows what they intend to do with him. He also knows that, to get what they want, they need him alive and able." he said, his voice steady and calm. "They won't hurt him, Knuckles. And, with that transceiver behind his ear, Buckaroo won't lose him either."  
  
Knuckles smiled slightly, her mood changing instantly with this new bit of information. "Transceiver?"  
  
"You really think we would let them just take Tom away?" Pinky growled.  
  
Knuckles shook her head, finally climbing into the vehicle. "Next time someone wants to borrow my truck, I'm gonna blow the damn thing up."  
  
"Good idea." Pinky mumbled, putting the hummer in gear.  
  
"Where are we going?" the girl asked as they drove around the outskirts of the tiny town and headed away once again.  
  
"Tuson." Jersey answered.  
  
"What? Why?" Knuckles demanded. "Perfect Tommy isn't in Tuson! And neither is Reno!"  
  
Pinky noted that adding Reno on the end was an after thought. He glanced at Knuckles in the back seat. "You're a hunter, right? Hunt down the man that sent Reno out here. He knew Perfect Tommy would be coming too or, in the least, follow him. How?"  
  
"Don't stomp him, Knuckles." Jersey warned, knowing the girl had more than a little temper. "Just find him so Pinky can feed him the cover stories. Stay out of sight yourself. He might know you. Can you handle that?"  
  
Knuckles' jaw set. "I'm a man hunter. If he's out there, I'll get him." she promised.  
  
"Good girl." Pinky turned his attention back to driving. Their wild card was back in their deck. He just hoped she'd play for their team when she was drawn on. She had been with them for a few months now, but Knuckles had constantly proven to be unpredictable. Something that made her both a danger and an asset to the team. Pinky didn't like what he couldn't predict. Made security hell.... 'Course, it did keep it interesting. 


	4. Ch 4

The Cagon Mines Ch. 4  
  
Come daylight, Moses turned out to be a huge, 7ft, 200+ pound man as black as a starless midnight sky. Resting a giant miner's hammer on his shoulder as he lead his cell's occupants down the platform to their assigned tunnel, he reminded Reno of the song "Big John." The Cavalier just hoped this story ended better than the song. He had had just enough time with Moses to know one thing about the man: this big, big man deserved a lot more than being buried down in this pit of hell.  
  
"Keep close, Reno." Moses hissed as they passed the guards stationed at the entrance of their tunnel.  
  
One guard eyed Reno, unhidded hatred giving his eyes a glowing intensity. It took only a breath to recognize him as the man Reno had walloped in his escape attempt. He wore the angry bruise as proof. And he had the look about him that he was going to give as good, if not better, than he had received.  
  
But Moses stepped between the guard and Reno, his huge frame blocking out any sign that the Cavalier was even in the vicinity. The big man glanced at the guard with a warning glare, mumbling words that just didn't seem to fit him: "'scuse me, suh. Me an' ma boys are needin' ta get a piece of work done that a ways."  
  
Despite having heavily armed companions ready to back him up, the guard stepped back and away. No longer able to see the source of his hate he could no longer lean on it for courage. And one needed a lot of courage to stand before a man as big as Moses... prisoner or no prisoner.  
  
Moses bowed his head in proper slave fashion, then continued on, keeping himself between Reno and the guard at all times. When they had passed, Moses turned and grinned down at the Cavalier. "That man hates you."  
  
Reno frowned. "You sound pleased with that fact."  
  
Moses laughed, patting the smaller man on the back with a surprisingly gentle hand. "Anything that bugs them pleases me greatly."  
  
He considered continuing the topic, but thought better of it. He was not entirely sure he wanted to know what else pleased the big man. Instead, Reno asked "What's with all that `suh' and `me boys'? Slavery was abolished a few years back, you know."  
  
Moses' grin faltered, but remained in place. "These are ignorant people, Reno Nevada. What they see is what they demand. Else, someone pays." He shrugged. "Let them think I'm nothing more than a slave. Let them get used to the idea that they can bully us around. Let them think that we are subhuman. And when the time is right, we will prove to them that ignorance is not a defense of the law. Hell, the only thing ignorance can fend off is enlightenment." His grin returned to full strength. "And, I have a feeling, you just might be one to prove me wrong. Tell me, Mr. Reno Nevada, can you teach a lesson or two to these uncivilized coots?"  
  
Reno returned the grin. "If I can't, I know a fellow or two who most certainly can."  
  
There was a shout from somewhere else in the pit, followed by a crash and some rather colorful, not to mention multi-lingual, curses.  
  
"Ah." Reno mumbled, recognizing the voice. "Sounds like a lesson has just begun."  
  
Moses frowned, but, hearing the variety of curses, the grin quickly returned.  
  
**********  
  
Perfect Tommy slid under the table and up on the other side.  
  
The engineers quickly scattered out of the way as the guards slowly, much more cautiously this time, approached. "Just do your job, boy, and we'll all be happy." one said softly, holding his hands up in an attempt to calm him.  
  
Perfect Tommy smiled. "And I said I'm not touching a damn thing until I see Reno Nevada." he answered cheerfully. Jail had turned out much more entertaining than he remembered. 'Course, the Egyptians were not in the least bit interested in whether or not he survived, muchless conscious. These idiots needed him and needed him with unswollen eyes, movable fingers, and a head that worked properly enough. That gave him quite an advantage: he could smack them around, but they had to be gentle on him.  
  
Unfortunately, they weren't quite smart enough to count their fingers, muchless figure out what their newly aquire prisoner was talking about.  
  
"Sure, sure, kid." answered another guard. "But, hey, why Reno? I hear Vegas is a hell of lot better. Hey, Disney Land's nice this time of year."  
  
Perfect Tommy sighed. He wasn't known for patients, particularly patients in light of stupidity. "Reno Nevada is a man, you idiotic twit!" A few more brilliant swear words came to mind, but Tommy filed them away for later. Obviously, this required single syllable words, and those in red neck english. Taking a deep breath, he chose his words carefully. "Now, ye all perk yer ears up: ah ain't doin' nottin' fer ya 'til ah see ma friend here 'efore me, all nice an' peaceful like. Got it?"  
  
The guards frowned and glared and glanced at each other nervously. Already several sported bruises and more than a few cuts from the boy's quick and sharp fists. He had been kicking, swearing, fighting, and, in the most basic sense, not cooperating since the sheriff dropped him off early that morning to start work on the new drilling machine the engineers were having trouble getting to work.  
  
"Reno Nevada." Perfect Tommy said very slowly. "Dark, mean, about so high, probably beat the crap out of a couple of you before you got him where ever..."  
  
One of the guards began to nod.  
  
"See!" The Cavalier shoved a finger at him. "See? He knows! Good man. Now, go fetch!"  
  
The said guard glanced at the first. "That mex who climbed the rope yesterday."  
  
The head guard groaned. "Should of known. Trouble generally comes in pairs."  
  
Perfect Tommy grinned. "Actually, it comes in threes. Gives you something to look forward to, eh?"  
  
The guard was not pleased. For that matter, none of them looked overly thrilled. But, what were they to do?  
  
Mayor Cagon stepped between the guards. "Well, now, hello, Perfect Tommy. I see you've made yourself at home." He glanced at one of the many knuckle marked guards.  
  
Perfect Tommy grinned. With a shrug, he answered "Was never much of one for suffering idiots."  
  
"Neither am I." Cagon answered, and there was not a hint of friendliness, pretend or otherwise, in his tone. "You do realize that you have greatly endangered this friend of yours."  
  
Tommy frowned.  
  
Cagon smiled. "Try to think, boy. If he is so dear to you as to demand his presence, don't you think we would figure out that he is dear enough to hold him against you?" He chuckled. "And to think that I was considering dropping the charges against him as a mistake of justice. After all, we did get you on real charges."  
  
His words hit Perfect Tommy like a fist in the gut. He was sure the mayor would of never let Reno go like he had said, but, if there had been a chance, he had just blown it. And that was a hell of a thing to be guilty over.  
  
Cagon stepped forward, resting his hands flat on the table between the two men. "Let's be pleasant about his. After all, I need your expertise and you need me to keep you and your friend alive. You work and Reno Nevada may spend his nights in the engineers' quarters with you. But he must work with miners during the day!"  
  
Perfect Tommy glared at the man. But what was he to do? His mind worked furiously, trying to figure his answer. They would stick together at night. For that, they had to keep Reno close. As long as he was close, he was within reach. he just hoped that, when Buckaroo came to get them, that would still be the case.  
  
With a sigh, Tommy nodded.  
  
Mayor Cagon smiled once more. "Good. Progress." He turned to leave, waving a hand at the guards "Clean this place up. It's a travesty."  
  
"Well, it is a pit mine." Perfect Tommy pointed out. he took pride in his words. No matter how lame they were, he had gotten the last word, and, by god, that was something!  
  
**********  
  
Knuckles' eyes narrowed, her prey in sight.  
  
She had almost been surprised at how fast and easy it had been to find his trail. A few hours hanging around the bar where Reno had met him, played a little cards with the buddies he had hung out with, bribed (okay, threatened) a name out of them. Linked the name to credit cards. Credit cards got her a credit report, which got her a long list of wheres and whats. From that she noted his habits, his hang outs, even his sleeping habits and what his favorite meal was. More than enough to locate the man for Pinky Carruthers.  
  
But, after all that, Knuckles was finding it very hard not to dodge around the corner, leap across the room, and pounce on the man. All that stopped her was New Jersey's constant presence. Not only was she worried that he might get hurt trying to stop her, she worried about him worrying about her. The doc seemed a bundle of nervous energy, always concerned for one Cavalier or another. Knuckles knew well that she had not helped matters with her adding to Tommy's everyday trouble making. But, for some strange reason, New Jersey had attached himself to most of Knuckles' and Perfect Tommy's mischief. Even, on occasion, being an unwilling participant. Something that was developing into a tight friendship between the three. And she would do anything to keep that friendship intact... even resist the urge to throttle this man and smash his head against the bar until to exploded like a ripe melon.  
  
Besides Pink carruthers had other plans for the man.  
  
It hadn't taken much to coax him out. Dropped a little bait here and there, letting it known that an explosive expert was in town.  
  
Pinky leaned against the bar, complaining about the poor drink and bragging about the latest whatever he had blown up.  
  
Their target had moved close, taking a bar stool beside Pinky. He nodded slightly with agreement to Pinky's comments of the foul tasting liquor, showed appropriate amazement at his stories of his explosive antics, and offered a word or two and pointed as a pretty waitress walked by. From a distance, the two might have seemed like age old buddies. But a trained eye could see both men move and react to each other in a very trained, practiced way.  
  
"How long do you think this is going to go on?" New Jersey mumbled after a couple of hours of watching the men. He and Knuckles, becoming bored, sat at a table, tossing playing cards in the center in a half conscious attempt at playing War.  
  
Knuckles stabbed at the nearly melted ice in her soda with her straw. "How ever long it takes for him to take the bait." She sighed. "I still think it would of been faster if you let me beat the crap out of him."  
  
Jersey also sighed. "Yea, well, he'd probably be more useful if he wasn't comatose." was his answer. He tossed a card out, laying a jack of spades over her three of diamonds. With a lazy swipe, he scooped up the cards. "Besides, Buckaroo would not be happy if he had to bail us out of jail."  
  
"Oh, come on." Knuckles tossed out a ten of hearts. "i've beaten the crap out of lots of folks and never went to jail over it."  
  
Jersey tossed out an eight of clubs.  
  
Knuckles huffed at the win, and booted the used cards out of the way. "I want a butter scotch rum." she grumbled.  
  
"No drinking on duty." Jersey scolded half heartedly. He tossed out a six of something.  
  
Knuckles tossed out a matching six of a different color. "War." they both announced, barely aware of the game. "I said I wanted one. I didn't say I was ordering it."  
  
"Just reminding you." They laid out their cards.  
  
But, before either of them could lay out the last card, Pinky leaned on the table between them. He looked at one, then the other and asked "Are you two ready to go? Or should I come back when you finished your game?"  
  
Knuckles and Jersey stared at the intruder for a moment. Then Knuckles laid down the king of hearts. "Beat that!"  
  
Jersey held up the ace of spades. 


	5. Ch 5

The Cagon Mines by The Chronicler  
  
----------  
  
The bartender slammed back against the wall, the force rattling the bottles.  
  
Big Norse followed her blow with a growl as she stepped up to him. "If you EVER touch me again I will break every bone in your body! If you ever sniff at me again I will smack you so hard you'll be sniffing out of your butt! If you look at me again... Aw, hell. Let's make this simple: Either you keep your hormones under control, or I will.... by ripping your balls off and yanking them out through your freakin' eye sockets! Got it?"  
  
The man frantically nodded, his eyes big with fear.  
  
"Good." Big Norse stepped back and dusted her hands on her apron. Two days... Only two days and she was gonna need to sand blast her entire backside to get rid of that perv's fingerprints. OOoooh, Reno was going to so owe her! "And stop watering down the drink!" she suddenly snapped, sending the man's jumping out of his skin and fumbling for the bottle he nearly dropped. "If folks want water there's a trough out back." She returned to polishing glasses at the bar.  
  
Pecos relaxed in her seat in the dark corner of the Naked Lady Canteena. "All's well that ends well that doesn't leave a man eye balled." she mumbled.  
  
Her go-phone clicked softly, letting her know that, even though they might not get the reference, those listening understood that "All's well..."  
  
For now, anyway.  
  
The two women were the only Cavaliers obviously left in Cagon. The bus left two days earlier. "Gone in search of a cheap lawyer." Buckaroo had told the mayor who, ever so helpful, suggested a few names. What Buckaroo did was return the big World Watch One to the nearest BB garage and picked up more appropriate transportation and equipment. The girls knew he was out there, somewhere, hidden in the desert, keeping an eye, or rather an ear, on them.  
  
The plan... they were just waiting for the plan to fall into place, then they'd have the proof they needed to prove that this town's whole damn justice system was one big slave con. And that would give them the footing they needed to legally free their companions.  
  
Pecos frowned, swishing her cola in the glass. They knew where Reno (yea, yea, Perfect Tommy too) was. Most of them wanted to just go in and get their boys out. God, not to mention the bad guys, only knew what was happening to them in there! Sure, P.T. would be safe enough. They needed him. But Reno Nevada, the man Pecos would do anything for, had been an accident. And that made him expendable. They had to get him out of there! And she was getting damn tired of sitting around and waiting for the plan to...  
  
"You know, it ain't like you're gonna find another job here in this town."  
  
Pecos glanced over to the bar where the idiot bartender was once again moving in on Big Norse. Damn, the man just didn't get it. Kept reaching for the flame even after getting his fingers burned again, and again, and again...  
  
Big Norse barely glanced at him as she held up a glass to the light for inspection.  
  
"At my say, not a fellow in town would even glance your way!" the bartender growled, though he was sure to stay out of reach.  
  
"Ooooh, like that would be a shame." Norse mumbled.  
  
"Not like your street side heroes will ever show up again." He jabbed a finger at her. "You're stuck here. That bus ain't ever gonna come back for you."  
  
Pecos snorted. They had told everyone who asked that they had hitched a ride out here with the tour bus. Two bored ladies with nothing better to do. Now they were just hanging around until they got a ride back to civilization... something the bartender often reminded them did not happen often.  
  
Big Norse glanced across the room to her friend and they shared a smile.  
  
The bartender ground his teeth together. "You should be thankful that I opened my doors to you! You owe me!"  
  
Big Norse looked at him and smirked. "Let's see you try and collect, big man."  
  
The man glared at her for a long moment. But he was learning the coming at her was not the way to do it. With hand balled up in tight fists, he spun about and stomped out of the canteena.  
  
Pecos sighed. "Careful, Norse." she warned. "You get fired and we don't have a plan."  
  
Big Norse shrugged. "Next time he asks, I'll sleep with him."  
  
Both of their go-phones clicked, a reprimand.  
  
**********  
  
The bartender burst into Mayor Cagon's office. "I want that woman!" he growled.  
  
The sheriff and mayor glanced up at him. "We have our next mark, Bagens. And it is not another saloon girl." the sheriff reminded him. "Besides, you have more girls than patrons."  
  
"Like you need another boom boy?" the man snapped. he stepped up the desk and leaned over it. "I want that woman." he repeated. "You know you can't pull any of this off without MY contacts in Tuson, without MY brew luring those dumb asses to town, without MY Naked Lady to set them up in, without ME hiring patsies for your tin man here to kill off!"  
  
"Keep your voice down!" the sheriff snapped. "What if someone heard?"  
  
"Oh, don't be such an idiot! There ain't anybody in the whole town that doesn't know what's goin' on down at the mine!" Bagens waved his hands in the air. "Damn it, man, you've been stacking up bodies at my place like fire wood!"  
  
The sheriff started to rise to his feet, but Cagon held up a hand, stilling him. "Do we really need another explosive expert?"  
  
"We could live without him." The Sheriff shrugged. "Get that laser geek to do his thing, and we might not need any of them."  
  
Mayor cagon nodded slightly. he leaned back in his chair and looked up at the bartender. "Alright, Bagens, you can have the girl. Same con, switch roles." he pointed a finger at the man. "But this is the last one!" he warned. "It might be an inconvenience to replace you, Bagens, but it would only be an inconvenience."  
  
The bartender grinned.  
  
**********  
  
Perfect Tommy jumped at the sound of a snapping whip. He looked up and watched as a group of slaves were shoved, poked, and beaten across the entrance to his workshop. The guards chuckled at the anguish they caused their prisoners, a sound that twisted in Tommy's gut until...  
  
"Take it easy, P.T." Reno warned from where he was supposed to be sleeping. "There's nothing you can do for them 'cept make it worse."  
  
Perfect Tommy dropped back on his work stool. He looked over his shoulder at his friend who still laid, eyes closed, breathing evenly. To all eyes, he still looked asleep. Turning back to his blue prints, the youngest Cavalier growled "This is crap!" Angrily he threw a pencil across the room, bouncing it off the rock wall. "I should just build some mega kill-all-evil laser and blast them all right out of existence!" He continued taking out his anger by throwing a ruler and another pencil.  
  
Sighing, Reno sat up. "You do realize you are just going to have to get up, walk across the room, and pick those things up, don't you?"  
  
Perfect Tommy dropped his head down on the work bench with a groan. "I don't do jail." he mumbled to himself.  
  
"Well, this isn't exactly jail, now, is it?" Reno pushed himself off of the cot and shuffled over to lean against the work bench. "You okay, buddy?" he asked, concerned.  
  
Perfect Tommy barked out a laugh. He sat up again and looked at Reno. His friend looked tired, covered in dust, blisters, and bruises. P.T. suddenly felt guilty about interrupting the man's much needed sleep. At least Tommy could do his work sitting down. As soon as the sun was up (or, at least P.T. assumed that was the hour... he hadn't seen the sun since he was shoved down the hell hole), the guards came and dragged Reno away, leaving Tommy alone and on his own.  
  
"Hey." Perfect Tommy chuckled, a weak imitation of his usual cockiness. "I'm not the one who plays with rocks all day."  
  
Reno smiled. He patted the boy's arm. "Hang in there. Buckaroo will get us out of this."  
  
"Yea, well at least you get great material for a new book."  
  
Reno flexed his work weary fingers. "If I can ever pick up a pencil again."  
  
Perfect Tommy suddenly grinned, a spark of mischief coming back to his eyes. "You could find out by getting me those pencils." he suggested, indicating the thrown items.  
  
Reno pushed him off the stool and out of the conversation.  
  
Both men laughed until someone cleared his throat.  
  
Perfect Tommy instently lost his humor as he looked up to see Mayor Cagon standing in the entrance. He quickly scrambled to his feet.  
  
Reno grinned at the man. "Welcom to the pits of hell, mayor. How's it hangin'?"  
  
The mayor ignored him as he walked up to the work bench. He looked over the sketches P.T. had been working on. "This isn't very promising, Tommas." He looked directly at the young Cavalier. "I had expected something more than cartoon could-bes by now."  
  
Perfect Tommy glanced at Reno. "Why is it all the bad guys get my name wrong?"  
  
Reno shrugged. "Probably intimidated by how perfect you are." he answered.  
  
Cagon was not amused. "Perhaps you have not had the proper encouragement." His dark, hateful eyes fell on Reno.  
  
Perfect Tommy's gut twisted again. He took a step foreward, but he didn't know what he could say to protect his friend.  
  
Reno simply continued to grin. "Well, as the Cavalier's P.R. man, I would suggest, oh, $50,000 per design and, depending on their success, another $75,000 for the finished product." reno shrugged. "Now, these are low numbers, taking in to consideration that he really did steal a motor bike, but I wouldn't count on negotiating them down. This is as low as I am prepared to take them."  
  
Perfect Tommy chuckled.  
  
Cagon smiled slightly. He waved to a guard who stepped foreward and grabbed Reno by the arm.  
  
"Intimidation is no good." Reno hurried on as he was dragged away. "I just can't let his work go for anything less."  
  
When he was gone, the Mayor turned his attention back to his main target. "Mines are a dangerouse place, Tommas. Focus on that bit of knowlage, and you will be surprised at how fast all other distractions fade away."  
  
From somewhere down the tunnel, Tommy could still hear Reno's voice asking "Was it something I said?" 


	6. Ch 6

The Cagon Mines Chapter 6 by The Chronicler  
  
----------  
  
Big Norse tugged on the vest under her blouse. It was a gift from Knuckles, a bullet proof, leather light, flexible wonder that, accordingly to Knuckles, would save her life again and again and again.  
  
Norse hated it.  
  
The damn thing was a reminder that she was going to take a bullet. Stand there, smile pretty, say "Cheese", and take a damn bullet to the chest. And if that wasn't enough to put her nerves on edge, New Jersey had to go and ask "What if they aim for the head?"  
  
"Customer." the bartender mumbled, walking passed her and to the far corner of the bar.  
  
Big Norse glanced across the room to the swinging front doors. She recognized the new comer at once. Not that she needed to look to know who it was. She had been expecting him.  
  
Pinky Carruthers glanced around. He grunted a greeting at Pecos who sat in what had become her customary seat in the corner.  
  
She tossed another card down on her solitaire game.  
  
Pinky moved across the room to stand before Norse. "Hey, there. A fellow back in Tuson said you all have got this awesome homebrew... stuff knocked me right on my butt."  
  
Norse smiled, picturing the man on his butt on the floor, toasting a shot of moonshine. She was pretty sure she'd seen that before, but she had been too drunk herself to properly file away the memory.  
  
But before she could say a word, the bartender hurried over once again with a big grin. "Yea, we've got some of that. How old, how much, an I'll give you a price."  
  
They haggard over the price, both giving the other an act he was sure he'd fall for. Finally, settling on a price, the bartender waved to his employee. "Hey, girl, you go out and get them kegs pulled out. I'll bring this fine gentleman out in a moment."  
  
Norse sighed. This was it. Prepare, take the bullet, then nail these bastards for shooting her... someday she was going to get to make the plan, and, man, oh, man, was she really gonna get even.... Reno was really gonna owe her big!  
  
She glanced once at Pinky who smiled back. 'Course he was smiling, he wasn't the one the was gonna get shot. She turned and headed out the side door.  
  
No sooner had the door closed behind her, than her arm was grabbed and she was yanked forward to slam head first in to the brick wall of the building next door.  
  
**********  
  
The State trooper beside him stiffened, but Buckaroo held up his hand. "We were expecting a few bumped heads." he reminded the officer. "We need the scene to play through."  
  
The rescue team, a few BB and a handful of State troopers (to make the arrests official) stronger, were gathered around their favorite, not to mention best equip, Hummer known as the Beast. Buckaroo and Rawhide sat in the front seats, watching the scene transmitted to the hummer from tiny cameras that had been secretly placed around the alley. They had all gathered, silently, thanks to the ultra stealth motors of the hummers, just behind the motel.  
  
"Don't worry. She's wearing the vest." Knuckles informed the police who seemed as anxious about the civilian's safety as her friends were, though the BB were better at hiding it.  
  
"What if...." New Jersey started.  
  
"Shut up, Jersey." Knuckles growled, grabbing his arm and dragging him to one of the other hummers.  
  
"Saddle up, boys and girls." Rawhide ordered. "An' no one move until I give the word!"  
  
The group quickly dispersed to their assigned vehicles.  
  
**********  
  
Big Norse rested a weak hand against the cold stone. Damn, she should of expected that. Hell, she HAD expected that! She just hadn't been prepared for it.  
  
A hand grabbed her from the back of the neck and turned her about. Through bleary eyes she saw the side door.  
  
It was opening.  
  
Something cold was being pressed into her hand. Despite her foggy mind, she recognized the feel at once. Why were they giving her the gun? Why would they want her to shoot? Why...  
  
Pinky Carruthers stepped out. His eyes narrowed as he saw her, then wide with start when he saw the gun being held in her hand.  
  
"Pinky!" Norse cried, suddenly understanding. She struggled against the hands holding her, but they were strong and she was still weak from the blow to her head. "Wrong person." she tried to tell them, as if the fact that she was the one wearing the bullet proof vest would make a difference.  
  
Pinky turned, grabbing for his own weapon under his coat.  
  
But it was too late.  
  
The gun bucked in Norse's hand as it went off. "Pinky!" she screamed as she watched the bullet take her friend in the chest.  
  
He slammed back into the canteena at Pecos feet. The other Cavalier had her own weapon out. She hesitated only a breath, before leaping over Pinky and out into the alley, yelling "Buckaroo, we need you!"  
  
Norse was shoved aside as her captors turned to face this unexpected threat.  
  
Two more shots were fired.  
  
**********  
  
Mayor Cagon's head snapped up. "Three?" he mumbled to himself. He frowned. It had never taken the sheriff more than one shot before. These last two... they had a slightly different sound to them. A different gun? What could that mean?  
  
He stepped over to his office window just in time to see three heavy hummers and three state trooper cars skid to a halt in front of the alley.  
  
Two deputies stepped out of the alley to face these new comers, but the men and women who pored out of the vehicles were well trained.  
  
The two small town officers had no chance. One was wounded and the other quickly surrendered.  
  
That Dr. Banzai stepped through the crowd. "Jade, go gather up the Mayor. And no need to be gentle!" he ordered, sending an oriental man and three others running across the street toward the mayor's office.  
  
Cagon backed away from the window. His mind racing, he glanced around. Quickly, he snatched a set of keys off his desk and ran out the back door.  
  
**********  
  
"Crap, crap, crap, crap...."  
  
"We get the point, Knuckles!" Jersey snapped. He pressed his hand down even harder on Pinky's lower shoulder, trying to stouch the flow of blood. It wasn't as bad as they had feared at first sight, but it was still bad. The bullet hit above the heart... just barely. His free hand was digging in the medical kit for another bandage.  
  
Buckaroo dropped down to his side and began to pull out the required medical supplies. "How's he doing, Sidney?"  
  
"He could be a hell of a lot better." He paused to yell at his go-phone "Get me a chopper, Billy! And clear air to the nearest trauma unit!"  
  
Big Norse, hand resting against a rather large lump on her temple, stumbled up to Buckaroo. "Sorry, sir. I never thought they'd twist it around on us."  
  
Buckaroo rose up. "My fault, Norse." He smiled at her. "You girls want to round up that bartender?"  
  
Norse grinned. She and Pecos quickly disappeared back inside.  
  
"Buckaroo!" Jade ran into view. "He got away, boss. had a jeep waiting in the back of his office." He held up a dart gun. "But we managed to tag it before he got out of reach."  
  
Rawhide played with his go-phone. "The Beast has the signal." He paused, letting the information register. "He's headed for the mine."  
  
"Tom and Reno." Knuckles reminded them.  
  
Buckaroo dragged a hand over his face. What ever the mayor intended to achieve at the mine, he was sure it was not good for the prisoners. He had to get his people out of there!  
  
"Go get them, Buckaroo." New Jersey encouraged softly. "I'll take care of Pinky and the girls."  
  
Dr Banzai nodded once then rose up and headed back to the hummers. "Jade, take of the town. Rawhide...." He left it hanging, knowing his second-in- command, falling into step behind him, would take care of the rest.  
  
"Mount up, gang." rawhide ordered. "Let's go get our boys back!" 


	7. Ch 7

The Cagon Mines by The Chronicler  
  
----------  
  
Chapter 7  
  
----------  
  
The Captain of the Guard stepped into the office house at the top of the mine shaft. "What's up, boss?" he wondered when he saw the mayor crouched before the safe, emptying its contents out into a briefcase.  
  
Cagon barely glanced up at him. "The law took the town."  
  
"Yea? That bad?" asked the dimwitted guard.  
  
Cagon growled his frustration at the man. Slammed the case close, he stood up with it in hand. "I'm blowing the mine, so, if I were you, I'd start high tailing it out of here." he suggested.  
  
The captain frowned. "blow the mine?" As understanding slowly occurred, his eyes grew wide. "I have men down there!"  
  
Cagon chuckled. "You don't have men down there. You have liabilities. WE have liabilities." he shook his head. "You think any of them will keep their mouths shut if the state troopers get their hands on them?"  
  
The captain was more mean than smart. He ground his teeth together. "This is that smart ass laser geek's fault, ain't it? That pretty boy has been nothin' but trouble." He yanked free the iron baton from his belt and stomped out and toward the mine.  
  
Cagon shook his head at the man's stupidity. "Fine with me. One last loose end."  
  
Before he left the shack he went to a lock box that sat on the floor by the door. Unlocking it, he opened it up to reveal a lever hooked up to two large tanks: one with a pink liquid, the other with blue. Pulling the lever, the liquid poured down a pair of tubes, down into the rock ground below, and even further down into key positions in the mine.  
  
With one more smile, the mayor of cagon hurried out of the shack and on with his escape.  
  
**********  
  
Perfect Tommy leaned out the doorway.  
  
His original intentions were to pester his guards. He wasn't sure what he was going to pester them about, but it didn't matter. He would find something. His only joy over the last couple of days came from bugging all hell out of them, then, with perfect cockiness, remind them that they couldn't hurt him. Though a few had to be restrained by their fellows when reminding them wasn't enough to cut through their thrid-grade, rage blinded, thought handicapped brains.  
  
But, when he looked around, his guards weren't where they were supposed to be. Not that that was a disappointment. But, accordingly to the twist in his gut, it was a matter of concern. Big, mean, highly paid and/or blackmailed into duty prison guards did not just walk away.  
  
Other scientist, engineers, and such, noticing the same oddity that he had, leaned out of their own prison workshops and looked about. Many quickly disappeared back inside, too afraid to disobey, whether there was a guard or not to enforce previous threats.  
  
Perfect Tommy was never known for cation.  
  
He stepped out of his workshop out into the tunnel. He paused, waiting for some hidden guard to jump him... but nothing happened. He glanced at his neighbor who watched him with classic scientist watch-and-observe-before- reacting look.  
  
"Hey, you didn't see where they all went, did you?" Perfect Tommy asked.  
  
"Why?" demanded the little engineer lady from the other side. Her irritating voice had often been heard in P.T.'s workshop as she screeched and badgered her guards. He had gotten the idea that, even in the best of moods, she was not a pleasant woman. Her continual challenge of Tommy indicted such. "You want them back, eh? Well, I don't! Maybe I can get some work done in peace!"  
  
Perfect Tommy sighed. "No guards means, maybe, just maybe, you can go home and work in peace and quiet there." he pointed out.  
  
The neighbor to the other side felt the need to add "And we might get through a day without your annoying screech and hoot." He quickly vanished back into his workshop when the woman turned her smoldering eyes on him.  
  
"Hey!" Perfect Tommy drew attention back to himself. "I'm going to go see if we can get out of here without getting our heads knocked off. Stay here, stay quiet... for once... and I'll be back for you if it's safe."  
  
"And if it isn't, eh?" the woman demanded, though her tone had soften just enough to allow a slight hint of hope.  
  
The Cavalier smiled. "Well, then, I'll be dragged back, kicking and cursing, and we will know what happened to the guards."  
  
The woman glared at him for a moment, then huffed "Crazy cub." She disappeared back into her workshop.  
  
Well, here goes the easiest escape or the easiest way to get one's teeth kicked in. Perfect Tommy, wearily started down the hall.  
  
"Hey, there, cub. Hold on now, eh?"  
  
He glanced back at the woman. "If you just stay here..."  
  
"Hell, I've got too much work to do to go cleaning up after you!" she snapped. She tossed something to him which he caught easy enough. "Sure as hell not gonna let it be said, though, that I let a crazy cub go off into trouble without a touch of my personal expertise."  
  
Perfect Tommy looked down at what he had caught. A rock spike gun. He grinned.  
  
He was about to thank the woman when she got in the last words. "Now, don't go shooting yourself in the foot with that thing, eh?" She turned back to her workshop mumbling to herself "How the hell am I supposed to get any work done with jackass thugs and crazy cubs interrupting my peace every other eye blink, eh?!"  
  
Perfect Tommy chuckled. Bad attitude, yes, but he liked her.  
  
**********  
  
Down in the deepest tunnel of the Cagon mine Reno Nevada wiped the back of his hand across his sweat dripping brow. "Damn, it's hot down here." he mumbled.  
  
Moses laughed, a big deep sound that vibrated through the tunnels, attracting a few glances from his team. The big man rested a heavy hand on the Cavalier's shoulder. "This is nothing, friend." he assured. "You aughta try the swamps in ol' Louisiana. heat might not bake you, but the added mugginess will boil you alive." He grinned, his white teeth striking against his black face. "Just the way the gators like you."  
  
Reno smiled back. "That where you from?" he asked, for no more reason than being bored with talking about rocks.  
  
Moses laughed again. "Oh, no, not me. Never been there. Big, educated black dude like me down south? You think Cagon is a mean man, you should try a hand full of rednecks hiding under their mama's white sheets!"  
  
"I'll take your word for it." Reno turned back to his work, chipping away at a rather large boulder that stood between the miners and a silver strike.  
  
"Hey! Moses! Take a look see at this." called one of the other miners who crouched at the opening of the tunnel. "There aren't any guards. They're leaving."  
  
The group began to mumbled, a mixture of excitement and concern.  
  
Moses stepped passed his fellow workers to a point he could get a good look out.  
  
All along the planked platforms, groups of prisoners were being abandoned by their guards, who, wide eyed and nervous looking, turned and took off as if running for their lives.  
  
"This is not good." Moses growled. "This is not good at all."  
  
"But, Moses, they're leaving!" protested the others. "We're free!"  
  
"They aren't leaving." the big man corrected. He glanced at Reno who had stepped up beside him. "They're escaping."  
  
**********  
  
Perfect Tommy stopped and listened.  
  
A gurgling sound, a bubbling, a little slurping...  
  
"What the hell is that?" the Cavalier wondered. He glanced around quickly for the source.  
  
There was a lock box set in the wall of the tunnel.  
  
Perfect Tommy ran his hand over the lock. It would be easy enough to pick... if he had the time. Right now he needed to find a way up and out. When everyone was safe and sound, then he could come back and let his curiosity get him into trouble.  
  
He took one last, almost longing look at the box, than moved on.  
  
**********  
  
The State Troopers quickly jumped from their cars and spread out to capture the fleeing guards.  
  
When the Blue Blazes started to follow suit, Rawhide called them back with one of his famous and very loud whistles. "Keep it together, folks. Leave them to the troopers. We have our own to look to."  
  
As if his words weren't enough, Buckaroo Banzai already disappearing down one of the three mine elevators was. There boss was once again heading off into danger without waiting for any of his protection.  
  
They quickly followed after.  
  
Dr Buckaroo Banzai stepped off the elevator cautiously, watchful for any bad guy left. He wasn't sure how many guards there were or if they knew what was going on at the town.  
  
The elevator went only three levels down. There were probably ladders and shafts that lead the way to the lower levels. The third level was all plank platforms that ran along the mine wall which, every once in a while opened into a tunnel. Buckets, hanging from beams top side, waited here to be filled. This was where the silver and excess gravel was brought to be taken topside.  
  
At first he saw no one. Only abandoned mining equipment and deciplin tools (such as whips and batons). But, then, peeking around corners, were the prisoners. Their eyes, bright against soot and grim covered faces, were wide with fear and wonder and confusion.  
  
Buckaroo held his hands up. "It's alright. We're here to close down the mine. You're all free now." he called out to them.  
  
"Like hell!" was suddenly growled from behind.  
  
Before he could turn, a guard leaped from behind the elevator and tackled Buckaroo, slamming him to the plank platform. He knelt on Buckaroo's back, and ripped at the doctor's shoulder holster, trying to free his gun.  
  
Buckaroo, arms stretched out before him, grabbed a discarded baton. With a sudden twist that dislodged his attacker, he rolled over onto his back, swinging back with the baton.  
  
The guard took the blow in the shoulder. With a grunt, he stumbled away, slamming into the fragile rail of the platform. "Son of a... " he started, turning quickly around to face the intruder.  
  
But Buckaroo didn't waste any time. He rolled back on his shoulders, then back, leaping to his feet, baton still securely in hand.  
  
The guard growled, his fists doubling up. He was a good fifty pounds heavier than the wiry intruder, his shoulders were broader, his arms powerful. He was confident that this little man was no match.  
  
But, he didn't want to waste time fighting. He wanted to get out, and that meant he needed to kill him quick.  
  
Buckaroo stood light on his feet, silently waiting for the next move. He knew Rawhide was only a few minutes behind him... might even be already down in one of the other elevators on the other side of the pit.  
  
With a curse, the guard charged forward, swinging his huge fists.  
  
Buckaroo ducked under the left, grabbed the right, and yanked it passed him. Stepping out of the way, he let the guard's own momentum sending him stumbling passed to slam, face first, into the rock wall.  
  
Again, the guard grunted. Wiping a bloody nose on the back of his sleeve, he slowly turned to glare at Banzai. But, instead of raging, he grinned. Behind Buckaroo was a very fragile rail and a very, very long fall. All he had to do was make contact, and the only sign left of the intruder would be a splat at the rocky bottom of the mine pit.  
  
Again the guard charged, but just before he was within reach, he dropped to the floor, moving to wrap his arms around Buckaroo's legs.  
  
Buckaroo leaped back to avoid the grasping arms, but one foot was caught and yanked up. He felt himself loosing his balance and stumbling back. Instinctively, he reached out to steady himself, but there was nothing to grab. So, he kicked his other foot out from under him.  
  
Instead of his victim, who's foot he now held as he rose up to his full higth, stumbling back and over the rail, he fell straight down. Startled, the guard was jerked forward, nearly tripping on the intruder.  
  
Buckaroo kicked up as he rolled back, catching the man in the gut, lifting him up and over the top of him. He completed the backward somersault, throwing both the guard and himself through the rail and over the edge.  
  
"Buckaroo!" Banzai heard as he started to fall. Frantically he grabbed the edge of the platform, saving himself from the fall.  
  
But the heavy guard still had a stubborn, not to mention desperate, hold on his foot.  
  
Buckaroo cried out as he felt his leg pop at the knee and ankle. "Rawhide!" he yelled.  
  
As always, Rawhide answered him at once. Dropping to his stomach at the edge of the platform, the cowboy reached down and grabbed his friend by the back of his shirt. "Damn it, Buckaroo. An' you want to know where Perfect Tommy gets it from?" he growled.  
  
Hanging on for his life, Buckaroo Banzai grinned up at him.  
  
"'elp! 'elp!" screamed the guard who had managed to wrap nearly completely around his victim's leg. "Don't let me fall! Oh, please, don't let me fall! 'elp!"  
  
Hotrod looked over Rawhide's back. "Hey, boss, you've got carry-on luggage." he announced.  
  
Buckaroo grunted, wondering if his leg was going to be torn right off. "I'll introduce you later. Pull us up!"  
  
With the help of two more BB, the two men were pulled up to safety. As soon as they were up, the guard leaped to his feet and made a run for the elevator... only to run straight into Panther's gun.  
  
The guard threw his hands in the air. "We gotta get out of here!" he yelled at his captors. "This whole place is gonna go up!"  
  
"Go up?" Buckaroo looked up from where he was sitting on the platform, rubbing his sore knee.  
  
"Go up!" the guard continued. "The Captain came through, tellin' us all to get out. Mayor Cagon was blowin' up the mine. Gettin' rid of the evidence."  
  
"Well, crap." Knuckles growled. She looked around at the miners slowly coming out of hiding. "There are a lot of people here, Buckaroo."  
  
"Then get them moving out." Buckaroo ordered. He let Rawhide pull him to his feet. "Everyone, work in pairs, use your go-phones to find the tracker."  
  
"They won't work to well under all this rock, so don't get too far from each other." Rawhide added.  
  
"And move fast! Find our people and get everyone out!" Buckaroo grabbed Knuckles' arm. "Stay here. Get people up and out in the elevators. Don't let them panic. And make sure the bad guys get nabbed." His eyes narrowed slightly as he looked her over. She wasn't looking quite right, he thought. But now wasn't the time to think about it.  
  
"Move it, people!" Rawhide gave the last order, sending the BBs off and running.  
  
**********  
  
The shovel slammed into the rock just above his head, showering sparks down on him.  
  
Perfect Tommy scrambled on all four to get out of reach.  
  
The guard captain roared, swinging the shovel up and around over his head.  
  
The Cavalier rose up, turned to face his attacker, and held up his hands. "Hey! remember: don't hurt the brains! Need the laser geek alive! Remember?" Now he was slightly sorry he'd given the man and his men such a hard time.... slightly, anyway. nearly losing one's head could make a man reconsider things... particularly those things that encouraged the taking off of said head.  
  
"Gigs up, geek!" the guard growled. "The mine is done for, which means we don't need you alive any more." Down came the shovel.  
  
Perfect Tommy jumped to the side, feeling the make shift weapon brush passed down his arm. Though there was no real damage, there was just enough contact to skin his arm. "Hey!" Tommy turned his arm for a better look. "Damn it, that hurt now!"  
  
"Hold still, and it'll only hurt once!" promised the raging man. Again he swung down with the shovel.  
  
But Perfect Tommy had had enough. If he couldn't talk the man out of killing him, he was going to have to use other tactics to discourage him.  
  
He stepped inside the swing, punching up with his left, catching the guard under and behind the chin. Another swing struck the man across the jaw, his sharp knuckles cutting the Captain's face.  
  
Startled by the quick attack, the guard paused and shook his head. But he wasn't hurt enough to do any reconsidering. With an animalistic scream, his free hand whipped out, slapping Tommy back against the wall. He raised the shovel.  
  
"Stop!" Tommy ordered, raising the spike gun.  
  
The guard paused. Then laughed. "A glorified nail gun? You can't kill me with that!" His swing continued.  
  
P.T. adjusted his aim then fired.  
  
The captain of the guard screamed in pain, dropping the shovel as a rock spike slammed through his wrist.  
  
"I don't need to kill you." Perfect Tommy pointed out.  
  
Big, raging eyes turned up to glare at him. With a growl, he reached behind him.  
  
"Perfect Tommy! Gun!"  
  
The Cavalier rushed forward, jumped into the air, and slammed a kick at the man.  
  
The guard stumbled back, a gun flying free from his hand.  
  
Again Perfect Tommy kicked.  
  
Again the man stumbled back, crashing through the platform rail and over the edge. His scream sounded seemingly forever before it stopped suddenly.  
  
Breathing hard, Perfect Tommy stepped back to lean against the wall.  
  
Buckaroo and Rawhide were suddenly beside him.  
  
"You alright, boy?" Rawhide demanded, looking him up and down.  
  
"No!" the youngest Cavalier snapped. "Do you have any idea how badly I need a shower?!"  
  
Buckaroo's nose wrinkled. "Yes, we have an idea." When the boy turned his glare on him, the doctor smiled.  
  
The bright blue eyes were strong and alert. Perfect Tommy was fine.  
  
"Where's Reno?" Buckaroo wanted to know.  
  
Perfect Tommy shrugged. "I don't know. They take him away during the day. But I gave him the tracker."  
  
Buckaroo nodded to Rawhide who turned to his go-phone. "Perfect Tommy, Mayor Cagon is planning on blowing the mine. Do you have idea how?" Banzai asked.  
  
Tommy started to shake his head, but stopped. His eyes widened slightly. Hurriedly, he pushed away from the wall and ducked down a tunnel.  
  
Buckaroo followed to find his man picking and opening a lock box placed inside the stone wall. Looking over Tommy's shoulder, he saw a pair of clear tubes running through the wall. At that spot, they ran through a high tech looking box where they crossed, then continued on down. Running through one tube was a pink liquid, through the other a blue.  
  
"Oh, damn." Tommy hissed. "Having us use antique tools to pick at the walls, but gets the biggest baddest chemicals to blow the whole damn place up. Asshole!"  
  
"What is it?" Banzai asked.  
  
"That is the biggest, baddest bomb you've ever gonna see. Probably the last." Tommy explained. "One will do a hell of a lot of damage, but not enough to bring down the whole place. So he's probably placed these ports in strategic places through out the mine. When the chemicals reach the end, the computer will send a command back to these ports to mix the chemicals."  
  
"And boom." Buckaroo concluded.  
  
"No." Perfect Tommy corrected. "A lot of big ass booms."  
  
"Can we stop it?"  
  
Tommy looked back at him sharply. "I know chemicals and what goes boom, Buckaroo. I don't know how to disarm a bomb."  
  
Buckaroo grinned. "But you're perfect!" he argued.  
  
His young friend's eyes narrowed. Then they snapped back to the chemicals. "I'm perfect." he agreed. "Not a freakin' god." But he stared at it for a moment, his mind working. His eyes locked on a thick, electric wire running from the port and into the rock, following the tubes. "Command has to get to it somehow through all this rock." He reached in and ripped the wire free.  
  
"Think that's what that did?" Buckaroo wondered.  
  
Perfect Tommy shrugged. "For sure? Don't know what the hell that did. But, what ever it was, it doesn't do it now." 


	8. Ch 8

The Cagon Mines by The Chronicler  
  
----------  
  
Chapter 8  
  
----------  
  
Moses stepped out of the line and leaned against the wall beside Reno Nevada where he watched the freed prisoners make their way pass. "Keep it moving, friends. Now, no need to shove. We'll all get our fill of sunshine soon enough. Here, now, help out the lady." he encouraged even as he stepped out of the lead.  
  
Reno shook his head. "From six to sixty. Did you know there were that many down there?" he asked his big friend, referring to the prisoners they had picked up on their way up from the lowest shaft in which they had been working.  
  
Moses shrugged. "Makes a man wonder how many didn't get out... never will get out." he mumbled with an unusual somber note. But a grin quickly vanished any hint of displeasure. "Feel a little like my name sake." He scratched his chin in mock ponder. "Hope we don't run across a river. Don't think I could pull that parting of the water thing off."  
  
Reno chuckled. he was really going to have to introduce this fellow to Buckaroo and the gang.... "Damn!" he cursed, his humor suddenly gone.  
  
Moses didn't need an explanation. "I was wondering when you were going to remember that friend of yours. You gonna go look for him?"  
  
Reno ground his teeth together. "No. You need help getting these folks top side." He sighed. "Besides, knowing Perfect Tommy, he's disobeyed me, his guards, the mayor, Buckaroo, Rawhide, the President of the United States.... hell, God himself.... and found his own way out and to the nearest pretty girl this state has to offer."  
  
This time Moses chuckled.  
  
Reno shook his head. "You think I jest?" Again he shook his head before stepping back into the crowd.  
  
----------  
  
"Hey, ol' Bucky?"  
  
"Perfect Tommy, have I ever told you that I really don't like it when you call me that?"  
  
"Nope."  
  
"Well, I really don't like it when you call me that."  
  
"Oh.... hey, ol' Bucky?"  
  
Buckaroo sighed. "What is it?"  
  
Perfect Tommy dodged, spun about, and slammed the back of his fist across his attacker's jaw, sending another of the vicious guards over the edge of the cliff and down into the pit. "May I officially present you with my resignation?"  
  
"No." Dr Banzai answered, slamming his fist deep into another's gut. "I'm a little busy at the moment to take care of paper work. If you remember, get back to me later."  
  
"If I remember." Perfect Tommy agreed. Leaving his employer to take care of the last of the bad guys, he turned his attention to the lock box in the wall. Quickly opening it, he reached in and yanked the wire.  
  
After dispatching his opponent, Buckaroo leaned against the wall beside his young friend.  
  
"I was thinking that if we could get ahead of this stuff, we could tie off the tubes somehow and stop it from flowing any further. Just yank all the wires from there up, and we got it made." Tommy was suggesting.  
  
"How fast can you run?" Buckaroo asked.  
  
"Huh?"  
  
He nodded toward the tubes in which the chemicals flowed. "Can you run faster than that stuffs falling?"  
  
Perfect Tommy frowned.  
  
"Didn't think so." Buckaroo nodded to where Rawhide was returning to the main tunnel, handful of engineers and scientist trailing behind. "Friends of yours?"  
  
"Eh, there, now!" screeched a familiar voice. "The crazy cub's still kicking, eh? I'll be damned!"  
  
Perfect Tommy grinned, turning to face the coming little engineer. "My darling little beauty. How I died each second we've been apart." he sang to her. "Gentlemen, may I introduce you to the prettiest girl this state has to offer."  
  
Buckaroo and Rawhide exchanged bemused glances.  
  
The engineer smacked Perfect Tommy in the shoulder with such force that it slammed him back against the wall. "Cut the crap, eh! Where's my spike gun? You didn't go and shoot yourself in the foot, eh. I see that." She stomped off passed him, leading the way back up the main shaft. Hesitantly, the other prisoners followed. "Crazy cub!" she growled. "All I want is to do my work all nice and peaceful like, eh? And just how the hell am I supposed to do that with crazy cubs like you needing looking after, eh?! Oh, an did I mention jackass guards, cowboys, don't know who the hell he is," she jabbed a thumb back at Buckaroo, "eh, and bombs! BOMBS, EH?!"  
  
Tommy looked over his shoulder and said to the men following "I think I'm in love."  
  
----------  
  
A scream from the back of the group stopped Moses and Reno.  
  
The people around them began to rush forward. They weren't about to be taken prisoner again.  
  
"Stay calm!" Moses encouraged. "Keep moving up! Help each other!" he yelled as he pushed back to help those at the rear.  
  
Four guards, armed with batons and whips, were attacking a handful of stragglers. They showed no intentions of taking any of the prisoners back, and every at making them pay for their escape. In their rage, they were going to kill whoever they could catch.  
  
"Stop this!" Moses roared, running at them.  
  
Startled by the charge, the guards stepped back from their victims who quickly scrambled to get away.  
  
Moses took a stance between the attackers and his wards, a giant mountain of a man determined to protect his people whatever the cost to himself. "Stop this at once!" he ordered them, his voice booming as it bounced off the stone walls. "I will not allow you to harm these people!"  
  
The bravest of the guards stepped forward, holding his baton high. "Big man, little man.... they all go down when dead!" he growled.  
  
"Let's rethink that." Reno suggested coming up from the side and, with a lightening move, slammed his fist against the guard's jaw, dropping him to the ground.  
  
Before the Cavalier could turn to face the others, they were already on him.  
  
A whip cracked, tagging Reno on the shoulder. The guard on the ground quickly rolled out of the way as the whip cracked again.  
  
With a curse, Reno leaned back, just barely dodging the second strike. But a third guard's whip slapped around his ankle. With a yank, the Cavalier found himself slamming hard into the rock floor.  
  
The first guard leaped to his feet and ran to stand over the fallen man. "You stinkin' mex!" he growled, swinging his baton down at him.  
  
Moses caught the baton mere inches from Reno's head. "I... SAID... STOP... THIS... NOW!" Taking a deep breath, gathering his enormous strength, the man threw the guard back, through the air, nearly fifteen feet.  
  
Again, Moses took a protective stance, this time over Reno.  
  
The whips cracked, cutting into his chest and arms, but they seemed to have little or no effect at all on the huge man. Moses stood, unmoving, a human shield.  
  
Reno scrambled out of the way and onto his feet. He couldn't help but to stop and stare at his friend. Never before, even after all he had seen with his adventures with Buckaroo Banzai and the Hong Kong Cavaliers, had he seen such a show of strength and courage. But awe quickly turned to rage as he watched the guards whip to shreds his savior's flesh.  
  
With an animalistic snarl, Reno Nevada lunged forward, slamming fists into the first bad guy he reached. His blows were quick, unmerciful, and filled with the same killing rage that had lead the guards on their murderous rampage.  
  
So vicious was his attack, that the guards no longer saw Moses as the threat. The two guards turned toward Reno, but he was moving too quick and too close to use whips. Thus they switched to their heavy, iron batons.  
  
Reno hit, hit, and hit until the man before him dropped to his knees, then fell, unconscious, to the ground. Grunting, disappointed at the quick end to his first victim, the enraged man stepped forward and faced the two remaining men. Only then did he pause, but not from any concern for himself. He was simply trying to decide which to take first... or would he just knock the hell out of both of them at once.  
  
Moses made the decision for him, stepping between them. He grabbed the two guards by the shirt fronts and pulled them close. "I give you a choice: go your own way and leave us be, or continue and land on the floor here beside your buddies. Choose! And choose now!" he growled.  
  
The two exchanged glances, glanced down at their companions, then started to pull away from the big man. "We're leaving." one assured. "Just let us go."  
  
Moses released his hold. "And take our buddies. No man should have to die in this hell pit. Good or bad."  
  
The guards quickly obeyed, careful to keep a safe distance from Reno who still looked as if he might pounce on them even as the were retreating.  
  
"Why did you do that?" Reno demanded as his enemy was allowed to walk away. "Why did you let them get away with that? Look what they did to you! Do you know what they were goin' to do to those people?!"  
  
Moses rested a strong, restraining hand on the smaller man's shoulder. "No man deserves to die in this hell pit. Good or bad." he repeated.  
  
Reno stared at the man. "What they did to you... you just took it! You didn't even fight back! You just took it!" he said, suddenly registering what he had seen.  
  
Moses sighed. "My friend, I have killed before. It was the greatest agony of my life. My soul cries for those lives I have taken. Nothing that anyone can do to my body can compare to that pain." He smiled slightly. "And I will do anything to spare another human being of feeling such. Even if it is apparent that he has already been to that particular hell."  
  
Reno shook his head. "I don't understand you, Moses." he admitted.  
  
Moses laughed, putting an arm around his shoulders and starting back up the tunnel. "Not many Moses' are understood, my friend. But, they do get the job done, now, don't they?!"  
  
----------  
  
Some where near the middle of the crowd of Moses' freed slaves, a woman stopped. "What's this?" she wondered. Curiosity over coming the need for flight, she tapped at the lock box on the wall with a pick axe she had carried with her from the mine.  
  
"Come on, Mintsy." one of her fellow prisoners encouraged.  
  
"Hold on." the woman snapped. "If we can get something out of weeks of being enslaved, I'm sure as hell going to get it." Shewaved the crowd away from her. When she had enough room, she swong her pick axe at the door.  
  
The first hit splintered the door. The second caved it partially in. The third smashed it. The axe slammed through the door of the lock box and stuck into something behind it. A spark and a hiss sounded.  
  
Frowning, the woman yanked her pick axe free, ripping the door off. She stared at the broken box and torn tubes behind it.  
  
"Well, damn." she mumbled. With a sigh, she shrugged, then continued on her way.  
  
Once more preoccupied with escape, no one noticed the two colorful liquids spilling out of the torn tubes and down the wall. 


	9. Ch 9

Cagon Mines by the Chronicler  
  
----------  
  
Chapter 9  
  
----------  
  
Blue and pink dripped down the rock wall, falling into puddles on the cold floor. Each drop added to its respected pool. The bright colors spread, reaching out. The edges touched, the colors mingled, blended, creating a soft, beautiful purple.  
  
And, then, the chemicals reacted.....  
  
The explosion shook the entire mine. Support beams cracked and splintered. Rocks, rubble, and discarded equipment was thrown into the air to slam into anything solid enough to stop it, whether it was rock, steel, wood, or flesh. Waves of heated air rushed through the tunnels from ground zero, pushing before it clouds of sharp dust, sending the mine into an unnatural dusk.  
  
----------  
  
Big Norse stumbled.  
  
Worried for a moment that her head injury was worse than New Jersey's quick inspection had revealed, Pecos reached out for her. But then she too felt the ground beneath her feet shake.  
  
It wasn't a rolling, like an earth quake, but a deep, rumbling shake that could be felt through the soles of the feet and vibrated right to the inner ears, creating a sound that could only warn of disaster. It seemed to go on forever, a horrifying sound that put a soul in mind of the biblical Apocalypse.  
  
When it finally ended, the town sat in a deathly silent moment. And, then, an old, long-time unused alarm began to sound from the roof of the little mining office.  
  
"Oh, great!" the bartender grumbled, swinging his handcuffed hands around. He turned away from the state troopers and turned accusing eyes on the woman. "Now what the hell did you do to the mine?"  
  
"What are you talking about?" Pecos growled, taking a moment to righted Big Norse. "What is that thing?"  
  
"That is the mine alert." The bartender returned. "There's been a cave-in."  
  
Pecos and Big Norse turned to each other in shock and horror. Having nothing to say, the two Cavalier women spun about and headed for their hummer.  
  
Well rehearsed in what to do from generations of living in a mining town, the citizens of Cagon were already piling into trucks, with shovels, pick axes, and stretchers and heading for the mine.  
  
----------  
  
Panic.  
  
Knuckles wasn't the type of girl that panicked. Or so she had thought.  
  
But, as she laid on what she hoped was the ground, eyes blinded and lungs burning from dust, palms of her hands sticky with... blood?, and heart racing as if it might beat itself right out of her chest, she took a moment to reconsider her self-evaluation.  
  
Suddenly hands grabbed her shoulders and hauled her back until she was leaning against the cold stone wall.  
  
Instinctively, she pushed the hands away, but her wrists were caught.  
  
"Take it easy, Knuckles. Calm down."  
  
Knuckles froze. "Hotrod?" She tried to see through the dust, but could only pick out shadows.  
  
One such shadow waved in front of her eyes. "Yea. How's the eyes?"  
  
She shrugged. "I was looking down a tunnel when I got walloped by this wall of dust. I can't see much." She coughed.  
  
A canteen was pressed into her hands. "Stay here. Wash out your eyes." Something tugged on her shirt front. A pale green light glowed at the edge of her fuzzy vision. "I've tied a glow stick to your chest so you can be seen. I'll be back." She felt him pull away and stand up.  
  
"Hotrod..." she called after him. "What about the guys?"  
  
Silence... then, Hotrod repeated "Stay here. I'll be back."  
  
----------  
  
Buckaroo Banzai put a hand to his head. Why, he wondered, when all hell broke lose, was it always the head that got whacked? Maybe not his, but someone's head always ended up bleeding.  
  
A big hand rested on his arm. "How ya doin', boss?" Rawhide asked, pulling a glow stick from Buckaroo's coat pocket. He cracked it and held it up so he could get a better look at any possible damage to his friend.  
  
Buckaroo waved away his concern. "I'll live." He glanced around, but, outside of the glow of the light stick, everything was black. "Perfect Tommy?" he called out when he couldn't see the man.  
  
"I need a drink." came from the dark just a little further down the tunnel.  
  
Rawhide handed Buckaroo the light stick, then, cracking one from his own pocket, he went off to find their companion. He took three steps into the darkness and nearly tripped on the younger man. Crouching down, he grabbed Perfect Tommy's shirt front and hauled him up into a sitting position.  
  
"Watch the threads." Tommy grumbled, dusting away the helpful hands. In the green glow he glanced down at his most beloved clothes and sighed loudly. "Ah, the hell with it. I'm gonna have to burn it anyway." He looked up at Rawhide. "If Mayor Cagon doesn't get his come-uppings for this damn mine, he sure as hell will get capital punishment for this shirt. This was silk!"  
  
Rawhide glanced back to Buckaroo who was cautiously approaching. "He's fine." One on each side, the two men hauled Perfect Tommy to his feet. Rawhide handed the glow stick to the youngster, then pulled another from his pocket for himself. "Some one want to tell me what the hell just happened?" he grumbled.  
  
Perfect Tommy shrugged. "Something went boom."  
  
Rawhide groaned. "Genius at work."  
  
Buckaroo ignored the snide comments. "That wasn't as big of a boom as I thought it would be."  
  
Tommy dusted at his clothes. "That's because it wasn't THE boom. Most likely something somewhere somehow busted one of the stations and the chemicals poured out and mixed."  
  
"Good news, then." Rawhide concluded. "The stuff isn't continuing down to the switch."  
  
"Right." Perfect Tommy looked up at him. "It is all pouring out into one spot rather than spread out through the mine. Good? Bad?" He shrugged. "It's a binary bomb, Rawhide. The more that stuff mixes the worse this is going to get."  
  
"How worse?" Buckaroo wanted to know.  
  
"Depends on the slurries... the chemical mixes." He turned to face Buckaroo straight on, his tone taking on an uncharacteristic serious note. "For instance: Triex and Quadrex come together in a fine union of a subatomic level."  
  
"Well," Rawhide breathed, resting his hands on his hips, "that is just fine and dandy, isn't it?"  
  
----------  
  
"Reno? Come on, friend, don't cash out on me now."  
  
Reno groaned. "I do not want to do that again." he said, saying each word slowly careful not to disrupt the earth. Just the wrong word and it just might have another violent protest.  
  
Moses laughed that big booming laugh that fit a man of his size so well.  
  
Reno winced.  
  
Moses patted his chest. "Friend, no one wants to do THAT again." grabbing his smaller companion with one hand, he lifted him to his feet. "Still in one piece?"  
  
"Not sure. But I'm not hanging around here to find out." Reno answered him. Truth was, he felt numb all over. He was sure he should be thankful for the lack of pain, but he was just as sure that he should be hurting at least somewhere. Figure it out later. Get up (oh, yea, he was already on his feet) and get out of this damn hell pit.  
  
"Easier said than done." Moses lost some of his good humor. Not all of it, but enough that Reno began to worry. He nodded to where a handful of people were fussy under swinging oil lamps, digging at a wall of rocks.  
  
It took Reno a moment to figure out what they were doing. "A cave-in." he breathed. It was a statement, not a question. "This just keeps getting better and better."  
  
A heavy hand walloped him on the back, a friendly pat that sent him stumbling forward. Moses laughed again. "Ah, cheer up, Reno. We finally get to use all these mining skills these bastards taught us for our own good rather than theirs." He started for the fallen rocks. "it'll feel good."  
  
"I've worked for my own good before, Moses. It still feels like hard work."  
  
Moses' booming laugh shook loose gravel from the walls. He patted the backs of the miners as he stepped up between them with the same energetic force that Reno's back still ached from. Then, with ease, he hefted a boulder out of the way, while directing his fellows in where and how to brace the fragile ceiling.  
  
----------  
  
Pecos recognized the green glow at once. She couldn't see much as she rode the elevator down, but that glow was like a beacon in the foggy darkness. She turned to her go-phone to tell her which BB was closest. By the time the elevator had stopped, she knew who it was. And the fact that the glow wasn't moving was of great concern.  
  
Knuckles NEVER sat still for anything.  
  
"Knuckles?" Pecos called, carefully making her way through the debris littered platform to where her team mate sat.  
  
"'bout time you all showed up." Knuckles growled. Feeling behind her for the wall, she creaped up until she was standing. "You have any idea how discouraging it is for a blind person to vaguely point an newly freed miner to the exit? I'm not sure, but I think half of them went the other direction."  
  
"Blind?" Pecos repeated, alarmed. She quickly stepped close and held a flash light up so as to get a better look at her face.  
  
Knuckles winced, turning away. "Hey!" She pushed the flashlight away. "It was getting better, thank you very much."  
  
Pecos waved to two men who were part of the rescue group who had ridden down with her. "Get her top side. And be careful. Blind or not, she can still kick your butt. And, consider how your friendly little neighborhood has treated her thus far, she might do it just to top off the evening."  
  
"Hey, girl, our guys are still down there." Knuckles reminded her. "The go- phones aren't doing so well through the rock."  
  
"I know. I've got the booster from the Beast." Pecos assured. "It'll get us China if need be."  
  
Knuckles huffed. "Considering how deep that pit is, you just might have to."  
  
"Get topside, Knuckles. And ring up Billy. Tell him to get all the BB help he can find out here. And we need at least an estimate on how many people are down here." Pecos nodded to the two men. "Take care of her." Then she turned and headed away, looking for a good, solid place to set up the booster.  
  
----------  
  
Moses scooped up an unconscious woman, broken and bloody, and handed her back to a man who limped behind the work crew. "You sit and take care of the two of you, John." the big man encouraged. "When it's safe, I'll help you forward."  
  
The man nodded, sliding down the wall to wait.  
  
Reno pushed a post into place to brace the crumbling ceiling. A miner leaned over his back to put a spike through the post, hoping that that would be enough to hold it in place.  
  
Moses moved behind them, offering words of encouragement and a helpful hand here and there when it was needed. He paused beside Reno. "Look up." he suggested.  
  
The Cavalier glanced up to see, torn from the ceiling, a smashed and shattered electric light.  
  
"Fifth level. They didn't have electricity lower than that." Moses informed him. "This is good."  
  
"This is good?" Reno shook his head. He was exhausted. His hands were bleeding from the work, his head boomed with each beat of his heart, his muscles felt stretched to the point of just hanging off his bones, his lungs burned, torn and damaged from the dust he was breathing in...  
  
Moses' head bobbed up and down. "Follow the light. It will lead us to freedom."  
  
Reno frowned at him. "How biblical."  
  
Moses barked out a laugh, careful not to let it get too loud. The walls were to fragile here for a whisper, much less a booming laugh. "true, friend. but, in this case, this is literally, not figuratively." Again he indicated the shattered light. "They only put them in the main tunnels. Cheap bastards didn't want to waste money on, God forbid, electricity. So it runs from the elevators down to the labs and the guard quarters... on the fifth level. We stick to those and they will take us right on up to that beautiful sun we've lived far too long without." he looked down at reno. "And that, my friend, is very good."  
  
Reno couldn't argue with that. "Beautiful sun, smack perfect Tommy, and hug my girl." he sighed. "All the good things in life." His nose wrinkled. "And a shower."  
  
Moses nodded. "All the good things." He smiled, lost for a moment in some thoughts. "My wife and my kids."  
  
The Cavalier smiled, moving forward to help place another post. "You have kids, eh?"  
  
One of the younger freed miners chuckled. "Moses'd make a good dad."  
  
A couple of others added their agreements.  
  
"Well, then." reno spoke to them. "Let's make sure the big fellow gets home to them."  
  
Despite aching bodies and exhaustion, that was all the encouragement they needed. Moses had been there constantly for each and everyone of them. They could think of no better repayment then getting him back where he belonged, where every father belonged... with his family. 


	10. Ch 10

The Cagon Mines  
By the Chronicler  
  
----------  
Chapter 10  
----------  
New Jersey laid Pinky Carruther's wrist down. "You're doing fine, Pinky. Just lay back and relax. We'll have you at the hospital in no time." he assured his patient.  
  
Pinky squinted up at him, then closed his eyes. "Anything.... you... say, doc." he whispered. Hell, why did he always catch the nasty and everyone else got to go and play bash the bad guys?   
  
New Jersey adjusted the I.V. bag, before leaning forward and asking the pilot "How long?"  
  
"ETA: 22 minutes, doctor. Everything alright back there?" the co-pilot asked.  
  
"No. A friend of mine has a bullet in his chest!" Jersey snapped. He paused to take a deep breath and calm himself. "The sooner we get him into an operating room, the sooner i can get that damn thing out, and the sooner everything WILL be alright."  
  
"Just fine and dandy, doc." pinky mumbled, weakly reaching up and pulling Jersey back down in his seat. "I'm doin' fine. Just sit back an' relax, doc. We'll be at the hospital in no time."  
  
New Jersey frowned. "You're supposed to be one of the mature ones." he reminded him.   
  
Pinky chuckled, but his humor was cut short as pain streaked out across his chest. Wincing, his eyes squeezed shut, his hand on Jersey's arm tightening its grip momentarily.  
  
"Easy there." Jersey encouraged, resting a hand on his shoulder. "Just hold on, buddy."  
  
"Hey! What's that?" the co-pilot suddenly called over his head set.  
  
"A jeep.... some sort of accident." the pilot answered. "Man down."   
  
The co-pilot glances back at their passengers. "What say you, Doctor? There's a man down down there. Think you can handle another patient?"  
  
New Jersey looked down at Pinky's pale and taunt features. It wasn't handling two that made him hesitate. Did they have the time? Now that was the question.  
  
But Pinky answered for him. "Pick him up." His eyes opened, showing a moment of strength despite blood loss. "No way in hell is a man gonna be left behind to die on account of me!"   
  
Jersey nodded once and repeated to the co-pilot "Pick him up."  
  
The helicopter descended quickly, the pilots knowing time was of the essence. It had barely touched the ground when the co-pilot, quickly followed by New Jersey toting his medical bag, jumped out and raced the short distance to the over turned jeep.   
  
A balding man leaned against the side of the vehicle, an arm slung over his stomach.  
  
Jersey dropped down on the ground beside him and began to check him over for injuries. "Can you hear me? What is your name?" he called to the man.  
  
"C... Cagon." he mumbled. His eyes opened and, instead of the hurt, weak look the doctor had expected, Jersey saw a hate filled, strong, determined glare. Suddenly the man's hand snapped out, slamming a fist against the unexpecting doctor's jaw.  
  
Shocked, Jersey fell back.  
  
"What the hell..." the co-pilot started toward them.  
  
But Cagon raised a gun and fired, hitting the co-pilot in the hip.  
  
Pinky's eyes snapped open. Gunfire?   
  
"Christ!" he could hear the pilot curse.  
  
"Stay in your seat, flyboy!" growled a mean voice. "You're flying me out of here."  
  
"You shot Henry!" the pilot accused.   
  
"And I'll shoot you just as easy."  
  
"Oh, god...."   
  
Pinky tried to sit up but Jersey had strapped him down in the stretcher so as to keep him from rolling about in the helicopter. Where was the doc? Swear, if that asshole hurt him... He had to get free! Or, in the very least, sit up so he could see out the windows.   
  
"Hold on there, Cagon." New Jersey growled, coming up behind the Mayor. "You are not going anywhere!"  
  
Cagon turned and laughed at the skinny an who faced off with him. "Look at yourself, man! You're a scrawny life saver with less guts than a skeeter bug. Be careful someone don't come along and squash you."  
  
"I have two wounded men here... thanks to you and your greed." New Jersey snarled, his hands doubling up into fists.   
  
"Then do what you're good at: save their lives." Cagon growled back. "And I'll do what I'm good at!" He tossed the briefcase he had been caring into the helicopter with one hand while keeping the gun aimed on the Cavalier with the other. He quickly turned about to climb in, but the helicopter suddenly bounced into the air.  
  
The pilot had timed it just right, lifting his vehicle up just as Cagon set his right foot on the step rail. The action threw the Mayor back, stumbling right toward the not-too-pleased New Jersey.  
  
Jersey spun him around as soon as he came within reach and slammed his fist into the man's jaw.  
  
Again, Cagon stumbled back. But he recovered quickly. Bringing up his weapon, he fired.  
  
New Jersey was already moving. Seeing the way his arm crossed his body slightly as he brought up the gun. Jersey knew the bullet would be off centered. So he spun the other direction. Nearly blinded by rage and determination, he almost missed the burn as the bullet slid across his shoulder.   
  
Before Cagon could register the miss, New Jersey had drawn and aimed his own gun. "Put it down, Cagon! Or I'll put you down." he warned.  
  
Cagon laughed. "You don't have the guts to kill!" Again he took aim.  
  
New Jersey fired.   
  
Cagon's laughter was cut off by a grunt as the bullet slammed into his chest, snapped ribs, and pierced his heart. Stunned, he blinked at Jersey. His mouth moved as if trying to speak. He sank to his knees. Raising his hands up, reaching for something, he held that pose for one, last, silent breath, before falling, face down, in the loose dirt of the hot, all consuming desert.  
  
Jersey stared at the body. "Damn." he hissed after a moment. "I hate killing." It was all he had to say. There were more important things to be looked out after.  
  
Holstering his weapon, he quickly ran to the fallen co-pilot. Helping the wounded man up, he half carried, half dragged him back to the helicopter.  
  
----------  
  
"This isn't going to hold long." Reno mumbled, looking up at the splintered beam.  
  
"It doesn't have to." Moses assured. "It can go all to pieces as soon as we get through. Be better that way." His voice took on an uncharacteristic sad note as he whispered "There are many things in this world, my friend, better off buried."  
  
Reno glanced at him, wonder just what exactly he had in mind of being better off buried.   
  
But Moses quickly flashed him a grin and surged forward to help a pair move a boulder out of the way.   
  
:"Here, now. What's this?" asked a little woman who had moved a rock to reveal a hole in the wall. Some sort of smashed mechanical box hung down from the hole. Torn tubes dripping bright pink and blue liquids waved in a slight breeze.   
  
"Easy, girl." Moses warned, pulling her away from it. "Don't know what that stuff might be, but it doesn't look friendly."   
  
"But there's a breeze along that side of the wall. We must be close to..."  
  
"Hello? Anyone there?" came a faint voice from the other side of the cave-in.  
  
Eyes bright with hope, the trapped miners glanced around at each other.  
  
But it was Reno who answered. "Rawhide?" he yelled through the rocks.  
  
"Reno!" came the excited answer.  
  
The handful of miners cheered, a joyous sound that vibrated through the tunnel.  
  
The splintered beam creaked and wined in protest. Gravel and dust fell from the ceiling and walls.  
  
Moses quickly quieted his group.   
  
Reno leaned against the cave-in. "We've got to get out of here, Rawhide! The ceiling is about to come down!"  
  
"We're working on it, buddy." That was Buckaroo. "Are you alright?"  
  
"I'm fine... but we have wounded."  
  
Silence came from the other side. It lasted so long that the woman cried "Please! Don't leave us in here!"  
  
"We're not going to leave you." Buckaroo assured. "Rescuers are on their way. Can you dig out from your side?"  
  
"Working on it." Reno answered.  
  
Moses waved his people back to work. Hope igniting a new spark of energy and excitement, they gladly threw themselves into their work.   
  
Only Moses cast a weary glance at the two liquids dripping down on the rocks. Only a slight bit could be seen... for now... but each drop rolled down the debris to pool somewhere below. Whatever it was... it did not look friendly.  
  
----------  
  
Perfect Tommy ran up the tunnel, stopped, and tried again. Fingering his go-phone, he waited for a response.  
  
"Pecos here."   
  
"Finally!"   
  
"Perfect Tommy? Are you alright? Is Reno with you? What's going on? We got to get everyone out!"  
  
"Yea, you're telling me." Perfect Tommy huffed. "Listen up, Pecos. We found Reno, but he's on the other side of a cave-in. We need some help."  
  
"Heading your way. Stay where you are. I'm locking in on your go-phone. You can lead the rescuers from there."  
  
Perfect Tommy smiled with relief. "Thanks, girl. Hey, and tell Knuckles it was not my fault."  
  
There was an hesitation. "P.T. Knuckles was wounded."  
  
"WHAT?" Panic hit, but he angrily shoved it aside. "What happened?"  
  
"She'll be alright." Pecos hurriedly added. "Her eyes got scratched up when the explosion happened."   
  
"She's blind?"  
  
"She's headed to the hospital now."  
  
"But, is she blind?" Perfect Tommy asked again, more insistent.  
  
"Big Norse is with her. She'll let us know as soon as the docs know."  
  
"Damn. Damn, damn, damn."  
  
"She'll be alright, Tommy."  
  
"Yea, I heard you the first time!" P.T. snapped. "Where the hell are the rescuers?"  
  
In answer, he was hit be a helmet light. "Yoe! P.T. you playin' guide?" Hotrod asked.  
  
----------  
  
Moses gasped as his hand broke through to open air.   
  
"We're through!" one of the miners squealed. He immediately began to dig at the opening.  
  
"Careful! Careful." Moses insisted. "Won't do us any good if you collapse it in on us all over again. Reno, take charge here. Im gonna pull up our wounded and see about bracing that beam."  
  
Reno nodded and began to give orders. "You, there, get that debris out of the way. Over there. Bring in those braces. Careful. Don't hit the light with that pike. You'll fry yourself."  
  
Slowly, carefully, they began to widen the whole until, finally, they could see clear tunnel on the far side.   
  
Buckaroo greeted them with a big smile. "Welcome to the light... so to speak." He offered his hand to the woman and pulled her to safety and guided her into the waiting arms of a rescuer who carried her off. "Next."  
  
One by one, the miners crawled their way to freedom and the welcoming embraces of rescue workers, several of who wore BB colors and gear. The state's Blue Blazes had finally arrived.   
  
"Here we go." Moses announced, caring a wounded man to the hole. He was followed by another wounded man and a woman who helped a third man limp forward.   
  
But, before they could reach safety, Moses stopped to glare down at a bluish-pink liquid that ran from the debris at Reno's feet, down the tunnel, between his own feet, and....  
  
"Reno!" Buckaroo cried, also spotting it.  
  
But it was too late.  
  
The air suddenly filled with a snapping sizzling. Then the entire world exploded.  
  
----------  
  
Pecos was slammed against the wall as the world shook again. Panther grabbed her arm, but he was knocked down by another falling victim.  
  
Screams sounded from one of the elevators as its already stressed guide rails gave way, swinging the car out across the center of the pit, and back again to slam viciously into the rock wall.   
  
Someone top side fell over the edge and fell the three stories down to the platform only a few feet from Pecos, his body smashing with a sickening slapping sound.  
  
Dust, once again filled the air.   
  
"Close you eyes! Cover your mouths!" Pecos yelled, praying that someone, anyone could hear her. Following her own advise, she blindly reached out to the comm booster she had been working and, instinctively finding the switch, hit the alarm.  
  
----------  
  
An ear piercing whistle was the first sound Buckaroo hear. Despite his fuzzy attempt at conciseness, he recognized it at once. Go-phones were going off, announcing that their owners were down for the count... or damn close to it.  
  
"Rawhide?" he tried to gasp, but his lungs couldn't quite seem to work properly. Forcing aside the fog, Buckaroo called on every ounce of reserve strength he had left to bring himself about. The doctor in him surfaced and he ran his hands over his body, trying to discover if he had been wounded. For the exception of a rather large rock sitting on his chest, he seemed alive.   
  
Turning his head slightly, peering through the burning dust, he came nose to nose with a rescue worker. Half of the man's head had been caved-in by a broken beam. His dead eyes stared at Buckaroo with an expression of hope. He never knew his end had come.  
  
Somebody stepped on Buckaroo's hand.  
  
"Ouch!"   
  
"Ouch?" the framilar sound of Perfect Tommy's voice cut through his dulled senses like a sun beam through tree branches. "He's got a freakin' rock sitting on his chest, an' he's complaining 'cause I didn't see his hand there?"  
  
"Shut up, P.T. and give me a hand." Buckaroo growled. "How many?"   
  
Perfect Tommy leaned into the rock and, grunting and huffing, managed to push it off of his friend. "How many what?" he asked dropping down beside him.  
  
"Go-phones. I hear them." Damn, it was hard to breath.  
  
"They all are."  
  
Buckaroo blinked up at him. "What?"   
  
Perfect Tommy matched is gaze. "They are all going off." he repeated. "Yours. Rawhide's. Hotrod's.... they are all going off." 


	11. Ch 11

The Cagon Mines  
  
By the Chronicler  
  
----------  
  
Chapter 11  
  
----------  
  
"Come on, you pile of shit! Move!" Perfect Tommy yelled at the rescue worker. He yanked him about and shook him until the man turned his eyes to him. "Wake up! Cry later when people aren't dying for your help!"  
  
The man's eyes grew wide, then hardened. He pulled away from the Cavalier and stumbled toward another trapped body to check for life signs.  
  
"Perfect Tommy." Buckaroo called from where he was leaning against the wall.  
  
P.T. quickly stepped to his side. "You are not supposed to be standing." he reprimanded, moving under Buckaroo's arm.  
  
"And who exactly is the doctor here?" Buckaroo returned. "I have a few cracked ribs. I'll live. Have you found any of the others?"  
  
Perfect Tommy eased him back to the ground despite his assurances. "Yea, while you were `living' unconscious, we shipped three BB up and out, along with 10 of our rescuers. Hotrod is on his feet and another six rescuers. There isn't much room for anyone else down here."  
  
"We in contact with topside?"  
  
"Digger is half way up, relaying messages. That last shaker knocked one of the elevators out, but the Core of Engineers has showed up and we've got a real rescue unit setting up there now." Perfect Tommy informed him.  
  
Buckaroo took a deep breath and winced as his ribs objected.   
  
Perfect Tommy didn't miss it. "And I don't care what you say. You can fire me for all I care. You are on the next stretcher out of here!" He waved to a pair who had just re-entered the tunnel with a stretcher.  
  
Buckaroo grabbed his younger friend's arm and turned him about again. "Have you found Rawhide and Reno yet?"  
  
Perfect Tommy stared at him for a moment, then, looking away, he sighed. "We can still hear a go-phone just under the rocks. It will be Rawhide. Reno..." He shrugged. "They took our go-phones when we were arrested. He still has the transmitter... I assume..."  
  
"You assume?"   
  
The Cavalier sighed. "We haven't gotten a signal from it since the last explosion."  
  
Buckaroo's eyes closed.   
  
"We'll find them, Buckaroo. I promise!" Perfect Tommy swore. He stepped back to allow the stretcher to be set in front of his employer.  
  
Buckaroo waved the stretcher carriers away. "I'll stay."  
  
"Boss, don't take this the wrong way, but you're in the way."  
  
Buckaroo Banzai frowned and glared at P.T. "Tom, I am not leaving here without my people! If you want me out of the way, give me a damn shovel!"  
  
Perfect Tommy sighed. He ran a dirty hand over his face. "Fine... you run things here. Tell them who's next to go up and keep the communication going with top side. You do that and I can go back and help Hotrod dig Rawhide out." Pretending to speak so as Buckaroo wouldn't hear, he added as he turned and stared away "Maybe the cowboy can drag you away from this stinkin' pit."  
  
"Don't count on it." Buckaroo answered.   
  
----------  
  
He didn't think he was hurt... just not feeling. As if he was no longer there... there buried under how much gravel, rocks, wooden planks, and what-not?   
  
By some miracle, his face wasn't buried. Or it was, but in a pocket of air. The dead black that surrounded him made it impossible to tell.   
  
The only thing that he could say for certain was that that whistling from somewhere off in the distance was unmistakable. Every Hong Kong Cavalier knew that sound better than any other... and feared it more than any other. It was the emergency alert of a go-phone.  
  
Reno Nevada squeezed his eyes closed. It was getting hard to breath. Why? Because of the weight on his chest? Or was he running out of air? What the hell was going on?!  
  
A hand wrapped around his ankle and began to pull.  
  
Reno tried to cry out as pain tore up his leg and spread out through his body. But he just couldn't gasp enough air to complete the effort.   
  
Okay, maybe he was hurt after all.  
  
A big hand brushed the gravel from his legs. "Damn, friend, you sure do get in deep, don't you?"  
  
Reno chuckled, sending a whole new wave of pain through his body. "Moses." he croaked.   
  
"Reno Nevada. You're alive." It was a calm, gee-whiz sort of statement. Moses was, as always, in control of the situation. He moved a few larger rocks out of the way, then, carefully, dusted his friend off. Crouching over him he leaned over so that his eyes locked with Reno's. "You're ankle is broken. Maybe your leg too. Your shoulder is dislocated, and your head is bleeding like a stuck pig. And you might have some broken ribs. What do you want to do?"  
  
"Get the hell out of here." Reno gasped.  
  
Moses smiled that famous grin, his white teeth a beacon in all the blackness. "It'll hurt like hell." he warned.  
  
"I am not going to die down here!" Reno growled.  
  
"Good to hear. Carol, drag Phillip up here beside him." he ordered over his shoulder. "Keep them warm and awake."  
  
"Moses." Reno called to him as he began to crawl pass, digging at the wall behind Reno's head. "That whistle... It's an emergency alert for a go-phone."  
  
"One of your buddies?"  
  
The Cavalier nodded once.  
  
Moses gently patted him on the shoulder. "Don't worry your dusty little head about it. I'll find him. I'll get everyone out."  
  
----------  
  
"Hat!" Hotrod called, holding up his prize: a battered and dusty Stetson.  
  
Perfect Tommy snatched it for a closer inspection, though it needed none. Who else would ware cowboy style head ware in a prison mine? "Rawhide."  
  
Hotrod nodded his agreement. "He must be close."  
  
Perfect Tommy dropped the hat on his friend's head. "Unless it was blasted away in the explosion." he mumbled, more to himself than anyone else.   
  
Hotrod pushed the Stetson back and looked up at the younger man. "We'll find him, P.T. Safe and sound."  
  
Tommy glanced at him sharply. "'Course we will. Hell, death couldn't kill him. Think a few flimsy tons of rock could?" Not waiting for a response, he turned away and waved to a few weary rescuers, snapping off a few do-or-die words of encouragement. Then snatched up a shovel himself, and began to scoop up debris and toss it into a cart.  
  
----------  
  
Moses dusted off the boot. He followed it up to a leg... two legs. Continued to dig until he found the hips. But there he was stopped.   
  
A heavy cross beam split in two, laid across the man's hips. If not for the delegate and precious a-fram way it had braced over the trapped man, he would of been cut in two, dead instantly.  
  
Of course, he could be dead already. Moses had yet to see if the head was still intact.   
  
"Reno, my friend, how are you feeling?" Moses called over his shoulder to where Reno leaned against Carol, another freed miner. Phillip laid beside them, awake and physically able, yet, due to a head wound, not fully aware of what was happening around him.  
  
"Feel like hell." Reno answered. "Need help?" Holding his wounded arm to his side, he used his good arm to grab the wall and push himself to his knees. He bit back a cry as his broken ankle protested. Pushing aside the pain, he crawled up to where Moses crouched.   
  
"Anyone you know?" Moses asked.  
  
"Rawhide." Reno took a shaky breath. "Is he... alive?"  
  
Moses frowned. Carefully leaning over the legs, he laid a hand against the exposed abdomen. His fingers crawled their way through the loose dirt, until his hand could lay flat against the trapped man's stomach.  
  
Silence... Cold, still, silence...  
  
Moses sighed. He started to pull his hand back, but stopped.   
  
The man's stomach moved. He had taken a breath. It was a shallow breath, but, damn it, he was still alive.  
  
Moses offered Reno a reassuring smile.   
  
Reno dropped his chin to his chest, exhaling his held breath. After a moment, he looked up again. "He had been standing just out side the wall. The other side of the blast site."  
  
Moses nodded, understanding what he was saying. "He would of been thrown away from us. We're passed the blast site." Moses ran his big hands over the cross beam. "When I have this critter up, you'll have to get the others free." He grabbed either side of the brake in the beam.  
  
Reno grabbed his wrist. "Moses... You're only human."  
  
The big man grinned. "Perhaps.... but I am an extraordinary human." He looked over his shoulder. "Carol, girl, you do what our friend Reno tells you now, you hear? trust in him. He'll take care of you."  
  
"Don't sound like you're saying good-by." Reno reprimanded.   
  
Again, Moses just grinned. "Move fast and true, and don't look back. I'll be right behind you all the way." he assured. He shook off Reno's had, then, once again grabbed the beam. His eyes closed lightly and he breathed to himself "Dear god, give me strength."  
  
His shoulders rolled, his muscles tensed, and, with a roar, he lifted the beam up and over his head.   
  
----------  
  
Perfect Tommy yanked Hotrod out of the way just in time to avoid a new shower of rubble. "Get back! Everyone.... Back!" Perfect Tommy yelled, expecting what was left of the tunnel to come down on their heads.  
  
But, once the dust and rubble had fallen aside, the tunnel had not collapsed, but opened up.   
  
There before them stood a hulking huge man, holding over his head in a show of colossal strength the very ceiling of the shattered mine. Between his legs was the dusty, bloody, half-buried Rawhide. And behind him, Reno and two other miners.  
  
"Reno!" Perfect Tommy cried, instantly rushing to his friends' side.  
  
"Get Rawhide out!" Reno snapped, brushing the debris off of the cowboy.   
  
"Stretchers!" Hotrod yelled over his shoulder. He grabbed Rawhide under the arms and began to drag him out.   
  
"Get some braces in here!" Perfect Tommy ordered the rescuers.  
  
"NO!" Moses roared. "No time! Won't hold! GET OUT!"  
  
Reno shoved the younger Cavalier back to where Carol was trying to convince Phillip that they had to move. "Get them out. Hurry!" He turned his attention to Moses. "Hang in there, Moses." he encouraged.  
  
"With god's mercy..." Moses gasped. "Hurry!"  
  
Perfect Tommy bent low to get under the slowly sinking ceiling. "Come on." he grabbed Phillip, hauled him to his feet and shoved him at the opening, then did the same for the woman.   
  
Hotrod grabbed them both and lead them back to the waiting arms of rescuers.   
  
"Oh, god, don't let me fail..." Moses cried, the great weight forcing him down to one knee.  
  
"Perfect Tommy!" Hotrod yelled as he turned back and grabbed Reno.   
  
Reno cried out, nearly passing out, as he was grabbed by his dislocated shoulder and dragged free.   
  
With a dive, Perfect Tommy slid across the rock floor, under Moses, and passed, rolling into Reno and Hotrod.  
  
"Moses! Get out of there!" Reno called, blinking away tears of pain.  
  
"Too late, my friend." Moses answered, his voice strangely calm. He went down on both knees, the weight slowly crushing him. A snap and a gasp escaped the big man's lips as his back was broken. "My children...." His big, brown eyes opened and focused on something only he could see. "My children, Reno, my friend... my beautiful children..."  
  
"No!" Despite his own screaming pain, the Cavalier tried to scramble over Perfect Tommy to reach his friend, but Hotrod wrapped his arms around his shoulders and hauled him back. "Moses! Get out of there!" Reno continued to scream, fighting his rescuers.  
  
Perfect Tommy tackled Reno around the middle, sending all three of them back down the tunnel. Over the top of Hotrod, he pinned Reno down and yelled directly in his face "It's too late! He's dead! Reno, he's dead!"  
  
Reno stared at him for a breath, then turned his head until he could see Moses.   
  
The huge form knelt ridged for a second longer, a brace holding up the world. But then his eyes slowly closed and, with a rumble, the human brace failed. Moses disappeared under the rubble, gone to them.  
  
"Get out! it's all coming down!" Hotrod snapped, allowing Perfect Tommy just enough time to drag Reno back and off of him, before scrambling to his feet. "Run!"   
  
---------- 


	12. Ch 12

The Cagon Mines  
  
By the Chronicler  
  
----------  
  
Chapter Twelve  
  
----------  
  
Perfect Tommy's arms were loaded with gun belts, trying to shuffel them safely, while signing papers all at the same time. "Don't know why I have to do this." he grumbled. "I ain't even the paper pusher of the outfit."  
  
"No, sir, I see you are not." the hospital clerk answered, frowning at his handwriting.   
  
Tommy frowned back. "You are aware that I have an arm load of guns, right?"  
  
"If you shoot as well as you write, I have nothing to worry about." the clerk huffed.  
  
"Hey!" Perfect Tommy snapped, but the man was already turning away to file the information the Cavalier had given him on his wounded friends.  
  
"Perfect Tommy." Pecos called from down the hall. "Quit buggin' the locals."  
  
P.T. glanced at her sharply. With one last glare at the clerk, he started down the hall.  
  
"Try a shower. Some of us are trying to breath here." the clerk called after him.  
  
The Cavalier stopped.  
  
"Tommy." Pecos warned. "There's enough folks taking up beds in this place without you adding to it."  
  
"Meaning don't trip over your feet." the clerk added.  
  
"That's it!" Perfect Tommy spun about only to come face to face with New Jersey.  
  
The doctor was not smiling. "I have spent the day stitching up Blue Blazes. Something I do a lot of when you are on the loose." His dark eyes narrowed. "Don't be the next that needs stitching."  
  
"You think that little dweeb can take me?"  
  
"No." jersey admitted. "But I'll shoot you in the leg to keep from having to write the morgue notes on that little dweeb." He indicated the clerk with a jab of a thumb over his shoulder.  
  
"I resent being called a dweeb!"  
  
"Shut up!" all three Cavaliers snapped.  
  
Perfect Tommy glared at his friend. New Jersey was, by far, not a violent man. But he was a protective one. It occurred to Perfect Tommy, watching him, that he just might shoot him to keep him out of trouble.  
  
'Course, as it was with the youngest Cavalier, something else occurred to him. "What the hell hit you?" Perfect Tommy demanded, changing the subject all together. He stepped aside so Pecos could see the damage. "Looks like the doc's had some rough patients."  
  
Pecos smiled, thankful for the distraction. "Our timid little doctor got that color when he took out big, mean Mayor Cagon." she explained, looking like a proud mother.   
  
Perfect Tommy looked his friend over with an over dramatized look of admiration. "My, my..."  
  
New Jersey glared at the two. He didn't like being congraduated for killing a man. So it was his turn to change the subject. "The dweeb was right, Perfect Tommy." His nose wrinkled. "You need a shower."   
  
Pecos chuckled. "Give us the low down on the gang and showers will be our next stop." she promised.  
  
Perfect Tommy leaned into her. "Our?" he teased.  
  
To add her opinion on the matter, Pecos pushed him away, waving a hand in front of her nose. "The low down, do, quickly. I can hold my breath only so long."  
  
Jersey smiled. With a wave of a hand, indicating that they should follow, he started down the hall to the rooms the wounded Cavaliers occupied. "Pinky came out of surgery with flying colors. Bullet bumped off ribs, went up, and nailed the shoulder. He'll be out of action for awhile, but he will be back."  
  
Pecos whistled her relief.  
  
"Rawhide has a cracked head and a concussion, but, again, will heal up nicely. Though I had to sedate him to keep in bed." Jersey shook his head, amused and irritated at what difficult patients Cavaliers made. "Buckaroo has a handful of cracked ribs. I'm keeping him here only because security, right now, is better here. Norse has a slight concussion. Keeping her overnight for observation. Reno has a broken ankle, twisted knee, dislocated shoulder, bruised ribs, scalp wound which took some stitches, and a little depression."  
  
Pecos stopped. "Depression?"  
  
Perfect Tommy answered "A friend of his died in the mine saving him and some others."  
  
Pecos nodded slightly, knowing how Reno would react to such a loss. He was a passionent man hidden behind a laid back attitude. One of the reasons she loved him so. "I better go look in on him." she said.  
  
"Room 332. Buckaroo is roomed with him, and Rawhide when I can get a bed big enough and ropes strong enough." New Jersey nodded to the room to their right. "Appreciate it if you hung out in there. Kept an eye on the them."  
  
Pecos nodded and peeled away to go do her duty.  
  
"What about our shower?" Perfect Tommy wined.  
  
"I'll ask Reno about it." she assured with an evil grin.  
  
"Great." Jersey groaned. "I'll take those guns if you don't mind." Taking the weapons off P.T. hands, he informed his friend "Knuckles is across the hall in 331." He suddenly had his full attention. "She's fine. Eyes got scratched up. Vision will clear up in a few days."  
  
Perfect Tommy sighed his relief. He didn't even realize he had been worried about her.  
  
The doctor smiled. "Go see to her. And don't wake up Big Norse. When you're done, you can use the shower in the doctors lounge. There some fresh clothes in a box on the couch."  
  
"Thanks, Jersey." Tommy patted his friend's arm, then headed for Knuckles' room.  
  
Room 331 was a four bed room with Knuckles in one corner and Big Norse in the other on the window side.   
  
Norse was curled up under her covers, sound asleep, her back to the door.  
  
Knuckles was propped up slightly by pillows while she laid on top of the white blankets of the hospital bed. Both women were wearing white, hospital issued shorts and baggy, blue t-shirts with the Banzai logo on the front. A damp wash cloth was folded over her eyes. Her hands were fumbling with her braids, trying to untie them.  
  
Perfect Tommy shook his head in disgust when he found himself just standing there, watching her. Damn, his stomach was filled with butterflies, twisting and turning, like he was a school boy waiting on his crush for his very first date.   
  
"Crap." Knuckles hissed, flinging a pigtail aside.  
  
Perfect Tommy chuckled.  
  
Her head jerked about. "Tom?"  
  
"Yea." he answered. He crossed the room and sat on the side of her bed. Taking one of the braids, he gently began to untie it.   
  
She reached out blindly until her hand rested on his arm. "Are you alright?" she asked.  
  
Perfect Tommy smiled at her concern. "'Course. You know me: come to the rescue, save everyone, and be the only one to walk away unscathed."  
  
Knuckles smiled. Then slugged him in the arm.  
  
"Ow!" Perfect Tommy wined, falling back. Gingerly, he rubbed his wounded arm. "What was that for?"  
  
"They were after you in the first place!" she snapped. "Isn't right for you to be the only one to walk away!" Again she smiled.  
  
"Well, Pecos and Jersey walked away too!" he protested. Despite the risk of her nailing him again, he took up the other braid and began to untie it.  
  
"Yea... well, I like them." Knuckles answered.  
  
Perfect Tommy laughed. He ran his fingers through her hair, making sure he got all the strands untangled. "You should ware this down more often." he mumbled, though more to himself than her.   
  
"You think?" Knuckles replied.   
  
Tommy looked at her, wishing he could see those eyes of hers. Then he looked away, suddenly embarrassed for some damn, stupid reason.  
  
After a moment, Knuckles snapped "Quit that!"  
  
Startled he looked up at her again. "Quit what?"  
  
"Quit being so quiet." she answered. "Between you being all hushed and this damn blindfold, I'm... gettin' a little clautophobic." She wrapped her arms around herself. "I hate feeling all closed in."  
  
"Really?" Perfect Tommy huffed. "What were you doing down in that mine then?"  
  
"I was worried about you, stupid!" she snapped. her tone became soft again. "Damn fool always jumpin' in before looking to see where you might land. and then there's the doc and I jumpin in after just 'cause we're having a boring day, and..."  
  
Perfect Tommy kissed her. It was a quick, light peck on the lips, but it was enough to steel away both of their breaths.  
  
After a long, quiet moment, Knuckles licked her lips and whispered "You need a shower."  
  
"I do." Perfect Tommy rose up and hurried for the door.  
  
"Tom!"   
  
He paused to look back. "Yea?"  
  
"Maybe I will ware it down more often."  
  
Perfect Tommy grinned, then hurried out of the room.  
  
Knuckles heard the door closed before breathing again. She ran her fingers over her lips, surprised how one little kiss could leave her feeling so fluttered.  
  
"I'll be damned."  
  
Knuckles head jerked around, tilting her ears toward her room mate.  
  
Big Norse smiled. "I do believe our little brother has fallen for you."  
  
Knuckles frowned. "You'd be believing wrong, Norse."  
  
The Cavalier shrugged, turned her back to the girl, and closed her eyes again. She fell asleep wondering if their little bounty hunter in the other bed had ever blushed before.  
  
----------  
  
"Swallow." Pecos ordered, holding out the aspirin to Reno. When he didn't look at her, she sang softly "Reno Nevada-a."  
  
His head snapped about until his dark, moody eyes found her. "What?" he mumbled.  
  
"Be a good patient, Reno." Buckaroo reprimanded from across the room, sitting up in his own bed, going over a song one of the nurse's had asked him for an opinion on. "Take your medicine, feel better."  
  
Reno glanced down at the aspirin and, with a sigh, took the pills.  
  
Pecos looked across the room at her employer. Even as she nodded her thanks, she began a reprimand of her own: "Speaking of being a good patient... you are supposed to by laying back and relaxing."  
  
Buckaroo looked at her over the rim of his glasses. "I am relax." he argued. But he knew that expression well. Every woman he ever met, and some men, had that same expression when someone they cared about was injured: rest, get well THEIR way, or die THEIR way. Either way, they were going to have THEIR way. Sighing, Buckaroo scooted down in his bed, careful not to wince when his ribs protested the movement. After all, he knew Pecos' was would involve calling in his wife for reinforcement... and Peggy would have no problem beating him into submission for his own good.  
  
He couldn't help but smile at the idea.  
  
Pecos shook her head, guessing at what Buckaroo was think ing about. But she had some of her own thoughts on mind.   
  
She leaned against Reno's good arm and tilted her head until it rested on his shoulder. "You should write about him." she advised. "Let his family and everyone else know about the modern day Moses who lead the new world slaves out of the pits of hell and into the light of freedom."  
  
Reno smiled for the first time since his rescue. "You should be the writer." he told her.   
  
Pecos smiled at her momentary win: he was smiling! A glance over at Buckaroo let her know that even he had spotted the change.  
  
But, it slipped away again, and the dark returned to Reno's eyes. "He didn't lead the way. He pointed the way. To lead, he would of actually had to have made it into the light of freedom."  
  
Pecos sighed. "Don't blame yourself, Reno." she encouraged. "You couldn't have saved him."  
  
"I'm not blaming myself." Reno snapped, a little rougher than he wanted to. "I hate that it happened, but I know it wasn't my fault. It was that damn bastard cagon and his lackey sheriff."  
  
"Both of which are dead. so let it go."  
  
"Let it go?" His tone dripped and burned like acid.  
  
Pecos flinched away and Buckaroo started to sit up again, wondering if he would be needed to calm the man.  
  
"Let it go?" Reno repeated. "They're dead. And they took a good man with them! Let it go?" He shook his head angrily. "I'll be sure to advise the same to his children."   
  
Pecos glared at him. Hurt at his tone, she moved away and sat on the vacant bed. She hated when he got this way, but, she knew him well enough to know that his anger had to fizzle on its own. He didn't mean to hurt her. When he hurt, he lashed out. Bad guys were already dead, that left only the good guys.  
  
A knock on the door drew Pecos attention. She came to her feet at once, her hand hovering close to the colt tucked in the back of her belt.  
  
Billy Travers stuck his head in. "Hey, everyone still alive?" he asked.  
  
Pecos sighed, dropping back onto the bed.  
  
"Come on in, Billy. Could use a change in the conversation." Buckaroo greeted.  
  
Coming in, Billy glanced wearily at Reno and Pecos, both looking dangerously sour. One in a bad mood was enough of an ouch, but both of them... He moved directly to Buckaroo's bedside. "Hey, boss, how's the ribs?"  
  
Buckaroo smiled at the young man's reaction. "Doing better." he answered. "What do you have there?" He indicated the computer clipboard he carried under his arm.  
  
"Oh, yea. The reason for my visit." Billy said, pulling it out. But he stopped suddenly and looked up at his employer with an expression of extreme guilt. "Not that I didn't want to come and see you guys anyhow. It was just with all the work and stuff... But I would of come by anyway, you know... right? You know that?"  
  
Pecos laughed. Even Reno smiled.  
  
Buckaroo nodded. "Yes, Billy, we know." He pointed at the clipboard. "Share."  
  
"Yea." Billy smiled shyly, and opened the clipboard and handed it over. "Turned out that there were actually some bad guys down in those mines. Not that Cagon let anyone know he had them. But I guess he was worried that that would attract too much attention. And, besides, he put them in charge of cells. Kept them out of the legal system, so to speak, and he let them do what they want with their cell.... as long as they didn't mess with production."  
  
Pecos gasped. "We were just releasing them as they came up. We didn't even think to check if any of them really belonged down there."  
  
"No one belonged down there." Reno growled.   
  
"Don't worry. They didn't get far." Billy assured. "We caught all but one."  
  
"This guy?" Buckaroo asked, looking at the picture and profile of the man on the clipboard. He looked over the top at Reno a strange look in his eyes.  
  
Not that Reno was all grins in the first place, but that expression made him frown.  
  
Buckaroo handed the clipboard to Billy and indicated that he should show the other Cavaliers.   
  
"Yea, this guy. One of the worse, if you ask me." Billy took the clipboard over and handed it to Reno. Pecos moved in beside him so she could read over his shoulder. As they read, Billy continued "Slaughtered his wife and children. crushed them with his bare hands. When they tried to arrest him, he broke the neck of one cop and the back of another... again with his bare hands." He looked at Reno. "Everyone I've asked so far hasn't seen him. You're my last chance."  
  
Reno's eyes narrowed as he stared at the picture. A big, black man with big, brown eyes and white teeth revealed by a warm, welcoming smile.  
  
"You seen him?" Billy poked for an answer.  
  
Reno licked his lips. Not bothering to look up, he closed the clipboard and handed it back. "No." he lied. "Never seen him in my life."  
  
Billy hesitated. he glanced back at Buckaroo. He knew that answer was wrong. But Buckaroo nodded slightly. "Go ask Perfect Tommy, Billy. He was in another part of the mine."  
  
"He didn't see him either." Reno was quick to cut off that option.  
  
"Yea... okay." Billy took the clipboard. "Well, never know less I ask." He smiled, but it was as fake as they come. "I'll drop in later, okay?"  
  
"See you, Billy." Pecos offered as the boy retreated.   
  
The door clicked behind the computer whiz, leaving the room to sit in silence for a long, uncomfortable time.  
  
Buckaroo was the first to brake it, and, though gentle and calm, his voice came like a stone thrown through a window: shattering. "It was Moses, wasn't it?"  
  
Reno looked up at him sharply. For a moment, dark eyes were trapped by those see everything piercing blue eyes. But then he looked away. "I never saw that man before." he repeated the lie.  
  
The End 


End file.
